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h 

THA OLE WATAH MILL 

DESERTED BY MAN AND DOOMED TO SILENCE 
AND DECAY. 

. . . AND . . . 


Mellissy and Tha Chillens. 


AS TOLD BY JOSIAH. 


THE BLACK WOMAN’S BURDEN 
1840 . . 1865 . 


A STORY OF HUMAN SLAVERY IN KENTUCKY. 
A VENEERE OF FICTION, A DENSITY OF FACT. 


Copyrighted'! 81 ^^ : ' 

BY W. H. EMERSON. 

All rights reserVed. i ij> i ! 


Search Light Printing House 
Astoria, Illinois, 1903. 


THE LIBRARY OF I 

^ O i N -A . . 

Two Copies Receiver; 

OCT 23 


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V 


CONTENTS. 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Deserted by Man and Doomed to Silence 

and Decay 3 

II. The White Palace in the Wood .... 6 

III. Camping at Tha Ole Watah Mill ... 11 

IV. Burnside's Advance on Knoxville, Tenn. . 13 

V. An Insane Woman's Appeal 15 

VI. Under the Sycamore Trees 17 

VII. The Illinois Major Talks, Talks .... 20 

VIII. An Illinois Story by the Major .... 23 

IX. As the Bacon Fried and the Coffee Pot 

Steamed 27 

X. A Patriotic Meeting at Harrodsburg . . 31 

XI. An Expedition Against the Confederates . 39 

XII. Unarmed and Wants to Resign .... 43 

XIII. Night Dragging but Never Passing Its Eter- 

nal Length Along 45 

XIV. Lost in Abandoned Coal Working ... 47 

XV. Men up, Men on. Hoist Away, Often to 

a Grave 56 

XVI. Major Proposes to Change Plan of Cam- 

paign 59 

XVII. Dueling in the Dark. ‘‘Poor Jim" . . 62 

XVIII. Plan of Campaign in Practice .... 65 

XIX. Campaign Result. A Hasty Exit ... 67 

XX. By The Smouldering Fire Under the Syca- 

more Trees . 68 

XXI. Again Tempting Fate . 75 

XXII. Discover Fabulous Wealth 85 

XXIII. An Inglorious Ending of A Perilous Venture 87 

XXIV. The Bod}/ of A Man on the Floor. Dead 

or Alive 89 


PAGE 


HAPTEE 

XXV. The Delightful Borders of Dreamland . . 91 

XXVI. As the Black Waters Rolled Over Our 

White Gunwalls 95 

XXVll. The Burning of “Tha Ole Watah Mill’’ 

and on to Knoxville 96 

XXVIll. Many Years After the War of the Rebellion 99 

XXIX. The Railroad Surveyors Call on the Lady 

of the House 101 

XXX. Josiah Marshall 105 

XXXI. “Fact Was the Ole Watah Mill was Hanted” 108 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS. 

I. Melissy and tha Chillens as Told by Josiah 

Marshall 110 

II. The Deacon and the Lawd’s Contract is 

Consumated 121 

III. They Found Her on the Ground Among 

the Crocus Blooms 125 

IV. And So the Happy Years Went By . . 126 

V. The Man From Maine 131 

VI. Melissy Jackson, the White Man’s Burden 

Bearer 1)4 

VII. Orange Blossoms. The White Man’s Bur- 

den. The Thorn I39 

VI II. The Passing of the Old Minister. The 

Coming of the New 141 

IX. A Visit to Aunt Polley’s at Maple Tree 

Springs 151 

X. Aunt Polley’s Wash Day 156 

XI. Aunt Polley’s Appeal to the Negro Buyers 169 

XII. The Gemmelmen from Ahkinsaw . . . 171 

XIII. The Lean Years 177 

XIV. Melissy and Tha Chillens 182 

XV. The Toll Gate House 188 


OHAPTBB PAGE 

XVI. Genie 200 

XVII. Off to the Mexican War 2 13 

XVIII. On the Plains of Texas 230 

XIX. Gray Wins — Josiah’s Life the Stake . . 232 

XX. The Night Advance at Palo Alto .... 244 

XXL Captain Marshall’s Slayer, while Dying 

Imposes a Trust . , 254 

XXII. Buryal of Captains Marshall and DeLave- 

gah 258 

XXlll. Dying Enemy’s Trust Held Sacred by All 263 

XXIV. The Battle of Monterey. The Street Fight. 

The Defeat. The Retreat. Captain Spill- 
man Wounded. The Gray Colt Killed. 

Under the Roses 264 

XXV. Discovered by a Mother and a Child . . 269 

XXVI. Hospital Cot No. I63 and Cot 376 . . 272 

XXVll, Exchanges Hospital Shrieks and Groans for 

Songs of Birds, Blooming Flowers and 

Grassy Shades 279 

XXVIll. Death of Colonel Marshall 285 

XXIX. The Priest’s Mission. Peace Be Still . . 287 

XXX. A Panoramic View 294 

XXXI. A Benediction 297 

XXXII. In Fisher Satan’s Net 300 

XXXlll. A Night in a Cloister 309 

XXXIV. The Shadow of the Mountain Side . . . 317 

XXXV. In God’s Own Way }2l 

XXXVI. The Hidden Face 322 

XXXVll. God be Merciful to Me, a Sinner . . . 323 

XXXVIll. In the Saddle Again 324 

XXXIX. The Graves in the Sand. The Skull of a 

Horse 329 

XL. Homeward Bound. The Arkinsaw Planta- 
tion Scene 331 

XLl. Harrodsburg Welcomes the Soldier Boys . 338 


GHAPTEE PAGE 

XLIl. The Home Coming 349 

XLllI. “The Baseless Fabric of a Dream” . . . 355 

XLIV. All that was Left of a Slave Man’s Family 

was the Chillen’s “Yallah Dawg” . . 378 

XLV. The Wedding 379 

XLVl. Thelnfair 382 

XLVll. Murdered on the Grinding Floor of the Old 

Water Mill 388 

XLVlll. Mistress Clarrisy’s Death 389 

XLIX. The Journey from Arkansas . . . . . 391 

L. The Return to the Toll Gate 406 

LI. Reunited 41 5 

Lll. A Second Infair and Death 418 

Llll. “Good by, Until We Meet Again” . . . 423 

Finis . 424 

Author’s Note 426 


THA OLE WATAH MILL 


. . . AND . . . 

Mellissy and Tha Chillens. 


CHAPTER I. 

DESERTED BY MAN AND DOOMED TO SILENCE 
AND DECAY. 

N ight fell on a Brigade of dust-begrimed soldiers as 
they went into camp among the hickory, oak, sugar 
maple and sycamore trees, stacking their arms on the velvety 
slopes of a Kentucky woodland pasture scene, that skirted a 
fast running rock bottomed stream of purest water, at the site 
of an old-time water mill whose rumbling wheels and screak- 
ing wood shafting, though long before our coming deserted 
by man and doomed to silence and decay, as we were after- 
wards informed, were now, strange to say, at our approach, 
slowly, haltingly, turning over and over in their oilless bear- 
ings, as if some spectre miller in charge directed their course. 

The old water mill, once the scene of a phase of country 
life peculiar to the border slave states of the American Union, 
had many years, as it afterwards appeared, before the coming 
of the “Lincoln hirelings,'' given way before the pressure of 
the hand of fate, the gnawing of the tooth of time, and, be- 
reft of the protecting care of its owners and the patronage of 
trade, had for some reason, been regarded as a place to be 


4 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


shunned, and, as we learned, a loathsome tomb, a hiding 
place for evil spirits and avoided by all. 

The old water mill, standing there on its great stone abut- 
ments above the rushing flood as we found it at the margin 
of the beautiful carpet of blue grass now pressed by human 
feet, its doors barred against all comers and the eyes of the 
curious who would profane its sacred retirement and perhaps 
wrest from its gloom the secret its owners desired forgotten 
among mankind and buried in the dust of the past, forsaken 
by all, had come down the pathway of the receding years in 
solitude and neglect, the terror of the poor whites, and often 
from the standpoint of the slave owner of his superior, the 
negro. 

A place of strange sounds was that keeper of an awful se- 
cret, the old water mill, on whose grinding floor was once 
enacted the final act of a tragedy on which the curtain had 
been suddenly rung down by a murderer’s pistol bullet. The 
actors in all its casts had never for a certainty been known as 
engaged in the bloody deed there committed, excepting as the 
closing lines of this story shall tell, though, of all these facts, 
and indeed that the old mill was the possessor of untold de- 
tails wrapped in awful mystery, 1 being but a soldier in the 
army of General Burnside’s corpse, of the army of the Ohio, 
invading the country where the old water mill had made its 
history and retired from the view of man, could know noth- 
ing at the time of which 1 am now writing. 

All 1 knew at the time was, we were to camp near some 
old structure, and as one might trace the dim outlines of mast 
and yard, rope and clewed sail of a ship befogged beyond the 
breakers rolling lines as he stood on a sea beach in a foggy- 
morning hour, so 1 gazed, trying to follow the outlines of an 
old building as it emerged slowly from the gloom of night 
dimly taking form to my sight, seeming to be tossing at an- 
chor just out there beyond the beating surf in the rifting 
darkness. 


DESERTED BY MAN AND DOOMED TO SILENCE AND DECAY. 5 

After a time by dint of careful tracing I was able to partial- 
ly outline tumbling, ragged gables, sinking, sagging roof 
ridge, sihgtless windows with not a fragment of glass remain- 
ing in the twisted old frames to reflect back the glare of the 
hundreds of our campfires now crackling and leaping high 
along the green hillsides among the tents of a hungry, foot- 
sore army of men. 

The lights in the old windows had long since gone out, 
there were no such welcome beacons awaiting our coming. 
From the few patches of weatherboarding still clinging to the 
oaken ribs of the old mill’s skeleton, were dangling, quaking 
in the night air, shreds of wood fiber reminding one of filthy 
rags hanging from some cringing beggar’s back. The timbers 
of the old mill, each many times blacker than the background 
of darkness, black as it was behind them, about them, stood 
out in bold relief, while from topling foundation stone to crazy 
roof ridge, came to me a medley of discordant sound. The 
unoiled wheels and shafting of a dead past, long silent in the 
old water mill, were now, stange to say, turning about. 

Was the blackened skeleton 1 had been tracing against the 
blackness of the night, with its own fleshless tigers pushing 
the wheels about? Is there a §keleton in all that man creates 
or is a factor in creating? 1 have often heard that the dry 
bones of events desired forgotten were often found in closets 
of inhabited houses, and if so why not in deserted, untenanted 
houses as well? 

Oppressed by grewsome thoughts I watched the looming 
outlines of the timber skeleton before me, almost persuaded 
1 had come into the presence of a phantom rising in the 
night’s mist from its abode in some forgotten place where it 
had been concealed since a dead tenant was moved out, a 
place by man forgotten. 


CHAPTER II. 

THE WHITE PALACE IN THE WOOD. 


S UCH a place as my feet once stumbled on, a long for- 
gotten spot in a dense wood if, indeed the place had ever, 
excepting by the birds, been really known, a place in a dark 
green shade on an old timber, brush-grown battle ground, 
over which a regiment of infantry once skirmished, following 
the retreating lines of its enemy, I bethought me of wild 
flowers far removed from children’s finger tips, in the tangled 
wood among climbing vines, of a place a hunter once found 
in a search for deer, there where the wings of two mighty 
hostile armies had met, and one had almost perished. 

It was a place well known to the wild honey bee inhabit- 
ing the fragrant wood because of the wild apple blossoms and 
the honey honeysuckle growing close beside what was one 
time a rifle pit such as the union and confederate soldiers 
who once fought for the possession of the state of Tennessee, 
if given a few hours from battle, used to scoop out with a tin 
cup, their bayonets, with their jack knives, in fact with any- 
thing at hand that would make a hole in the ground suffici- 
ently deep to hide their heads in. 

The depression in the ground had been only a little rifle 
pit, in the midst of many evidences all about of larger ones. 
It had been just large enough for one skirmisher to couch in 
a little below the flooting bullets as they nipped the grass tops, 
while he waited for a turn to make a line shot. But small 
as the now grassed over wave in the earth was, it must have 
cost the digger a night of ceaseless labor in its preparation 
for the morrow. 


6 


THE WHITE PALACE IN THE WOOD. 


7 


When I happened on the old rifle pit in the southern wood, 
it was largely occupied by members of a colony of crab apple 
bushes in full bloom, surrounded by trees largely grown I 
thought since the battle of Fort Donaldson. 

Standing there trying to follow the outlines of the old wa- 
ter mill in the gloom of the night, 1 remembered the battle 
that Buckner lost, and Grant won, at and about Dover, Ten- 
nessee, and particularly the woods well down to the Cumber- 
land river on Gen. Grant's left where the confederates’ water 
batteries were, the night fight in the wood, the decimated 
ranks of a regiment of infantry presented at its next roll call 
after the battle, when it was found the youngest soldier in 
the command, the pride of his company, with a host of dead 
and wounded comrades had been left in the wood. 

I did not know at the time why, but, as 1 looked at the old 
water mill there in the night, I seemed to stand again beside 
that crab apple tree grown rifle pit among the wild honey- 
suckle vines and the humming of the honey bees, where, al- 
most hidden by the luxuriant grass and wild flowers carpet- 
ing the earth once scratched flake by flake by a soldier’s tin 
cup and thrown by a mere boy’s hand into a little ridge to- 
wards his country’s enemy, was fragments of a skeleton, it 
was only a little skeleton, not great, heavy, well matured hu - 
man bones, but small, and because of death’s untimely in- 
tervention, ungrown. 

Some of the bones once laid there on the breast of mother 
earth were not to be seen, but among those remaining were 
those of an arm. The bones of a hand, all fallen apart, lay 
in a little grouping of snowy whiteness beside tracings of 
rusted, decayed iron, evidently the lingering remains of what 
was once a tin cup and of the hand that had grasped it. 

Too there were the hip bones and the weather stained 
bones of a leg and foot imbedded in the grass. 

And there just where a depression seemed to have been 
made in the crest of the earth thrown up towards an enemy 
as a rest for a rifle while watching a chance for a shot, lay a 


8 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


whitened skull, the skull of a mere boy. I remember kneel- 
ing in the grass under the apple and honeysuckle blooms, and 
my thoughts of a mother, of her old arm chair alone at home. 

For all earth contained I would not have so much as 
touched that whitened skull, flecked as it was with bits of 
parched skin, tufted with the silken brown hair, that waiting 
mother had moistened with tears of joy dnd her kisses. As 
1 kneeled as close beside that little skull as the bushes would 
admit of my doing, there seemed to come to me the far dis- 
tant roll of a tennor drum. When drawing nearer to the 
grass imbedded skull, pushing the apple blooms which seem- 
ed bent on protecting their treasure from all but the glance of 
fate, aside, while the wings of a bird flitting among the fra- 
grant branches fanned my cheek as if to drive me away from 
the sacred place, 1 picked up all that remained of a once iron 
barlow knife handle and its rusted blade, protecting my face 
from the mother bird’s vigorous attack by means of my 
slouch hat held close to my cheek, and examining the skull 
as closely as the fanning bird wings would admit of, saw that 
the little skull had been almost riven asunder. 

There was a great break in the temple a little to the right 
of an empty eye socket. Notwithstanding the protests of the 
mother bird and her supporting mate, I looked into the cavity 
of the broken skull, fully expecting to find it vacant, but 
judge of my surprise, under the protection a human skull af- 
forded as a roof was a downy nest and a family of chattering, 
squirming birdling occupants. A mother bird’s tender brood 
of half fledged, future songsters of a wood once stunned by 
battles terrific crash, with mouths wide open expectantly 
waiting for food and fearing no harm in that abode of peace, 
were there. A little family, denizens of that little white 
skull now the delight of a mother other than she, who, as a 
boy’s head pressed her breast saw her image reflected in the 
now eyeless sockets of that riven skull, no doubt hoping it was 
a dome under whose springing arch stores of wisdom and good- 
ness would be found housed from whence, even as Israel 


THE WHITE PALACE IN THE WOOD. 


9 


drew of corn in his time of need from the treasures of 
Egypt, so should be had from the opulence gathered there 
helpfulness and blessings for some needy child of earth 
with never a distraction. Sweet, loving mother, I 
thought, with all her fond dreamings, her motherly heart's, 
yearnings for the happiness and the usefulness of her boy as 
she caressed his wavy brown head, now this whitened skull, 
remembering that within man's brain cavity is often found 
the seat of empire, and wishing as much for her own, she 
never for a moment had the least conception of the glorious 
ultimate awaiting, of a palace white, rearing its pearly dome 
in a leafy wood, its every approach whether by pinion fleet 
or tardy earth clogged foot hedged about by untold wealth of 
forest blooms festooned in air, or, as a carpet spread over the 
mold, while within its spacious apartment the reverberations 
of the voices of the song birds is only heard, no cryings nor 
any sighing. O, happy fate, 1 thought! This riven skull, 
this abandoned seat of empire is now the center of all this 
life and lovliness, it knows not the eternal silence, the night 
following the ministrations of the grave digger's spade, to 
which the heads of the great of the earth, and the lowly, are 
alike hastening. 

Had some wanderer other than myself, who knew nothing 
of the history of the regiment that fought in that wood, nor 
that of its lost soldier boy, accidentally found the disturb- 
ed human bones beside the evidences of that little rifle pit, and 
after gazing for a time on that whitened skull and the tufts 
of brown hair, pitying the tenants and the frightened mother 
bird passed them hastily by undisturbed by the knowledge, 
for birds have great stores of knowledge, that the eye of the 
world had at last found them out, and had looked on their 
treasure, their secure abode, the little skull, then the rust eat- 
en barlow knife blade and handle, once the property of a sol- 
dier boy, the bits of iron once glazed with tin, found there 
among the flowers, the silky brown curl glued fast to a bit of 
red clay among the grass roots as if to keep the chattering 


10 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


birds’ nest in place on the slight declivity where the skull lay, 
would have furnished him, a stranger, no clue as to the iden- 
tity of him who occupied that white palace of the wood, be- 
fore the birds moved in and the mystery of the lost drummer 
boy, once reported as unaccounted for, probably would never 
have been solved. 


CHAPTER III. 


CAMPING AT THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


T he water mill we were to camp near that ni^ht was lo- 
cated on one of Central Kentucky’s oldest family es 
tates near the fine old mansion house of the Spillman’s, one 
of the most honored families of the commonwealth. 

Our camping place was to be along the margin of the mill 
stream, Clifty creek, not far from the crossing of the Nicho- 
lasville and Sanford turnpike road, where was located what 
was known as Cedar bridge. The mill stream was called 
Clifty creek because of the high rock cliffs overhanging the 
stream for miles which halted in their course,stopped just before 
reaching the picturesque gap where the turnpike road crossed 
the waters, in which was located the Spillman farm, their 
broad fertile fields, blooming orchards and the old water 
mill. 

The great macadamed road which crossed Clifty creek on 
Cedar brid^ at the gap was the connecting link between the 
agricultural table lands of the favored portion of the state, ly- 
ing to the north and south of the stream. 

At the old water mill site I am to write of, Clifty rippled 
on over a limestone bottom, skirting fields of blue grass, to 
finally race away under the long bridge below, to again pass 
for miles and miles between cedar tree flecked lofty cliffs 
whose lofty margins were the very limits of the rich lands, 
all capable of the highest state of cultivation known in Ken- 
tucky in that day. 

The scene in “the gap’" as we afterwards viewed it, as we 
marched away from the old mill site, was one of the finest 
11 


12 


THA OLE WATAH MILL 


landscapes consisting of towering cliffs, sloping green fields, 
cedar fringed stone fences, a great wooden bridge spanning 
a flowing stream, the waterfall at the great mill dam stretch- 
ing from shore to shore, the old mansion house, its gardens 
and orchards, and finally the mill site, we had seen any place 
on the route of Burnside's army through the blue grass re- 
gions of the state of Kentucky, enroute to Knoxville, Ten- 
nessee in that summer of 1862, where we were to meet and 
vanquish Longstreet's foot cavalry and their comrades of the 
gallant army opposing us. 

As I have said, our regiment arrived at the Stillman place 
as the coming night was gathering its somber folds about, 
and piling them against the table lands towering just there in 
the distance along the margins of the little valley where were 
the old water mill site, the mansion-house, the orchards and 
the green fields and as I remember literally packing the valley 
along the stream full of compressed blackness. 


CHAPTER IV. 


BURNSIDE’S ADVANCE ON KNOXVILLE, TENN. 

W E had been on a forced inarch all day long, scarcely 
stopping at some gurgling spring of water to drink 
and fill a canteen, slowly following a retreating confederate 
force, which making a dash into the state by way of Sum- 
merset, near the Cumberland river, had penetrated almost to 
Lexington. It was our business to give them battle if possi- 
ble, but in any event, to drive them from the state. They 
had, however, successfully left the table lands that fruited and 
bloomed right up to the very edge of the overhanging cliffs 
about our night position, and had hurried through the gap by 
the old water mill site and crossed Cedar bridge as our ad- 
vanced skirmishers took posession of the northern end of it. 
We were informed that it was the intention of the enemy to 
hold the southern end of the bridge and give us battle in the 
morning for the possession of the pass, but instead, we be- 
lieved they would make some showing only of holding a po- 
sition so near our front, and would make a night march to 
Stanford, a county town some distance ahead, where we 
would find them probably all ready to promptly retreat at 
our coming sometime next day. Fact was, we looked on the 
Pegram advance into Kentucky as a feint in the interests of 
their campaign against Knoxville, Tennessee, our real objec- 
tive point. So it was, after following Pegram’s force for two 
days, failing to induce them to give battle, we felt quite sure 
they would not trouble us during the night, especially as the 
mill stream, Clifty creek, flowed between our positions. 

So that, as we looked at the old water mill there in the 
night, we had fair expectations of a quiet night’s rest after 
13 


14 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


marching all day, but late^, as our tent stood beside our mess 
fire ready for occupancy, I learned that as our advance came 
up they saw some confederate wagons hastily leaving the vi- 
cinity of the old mill, and that gave room to imagine that as 
the mill wheels were running the confederates had started 
them in motion, and probably a squad engaged in grinding 
corn taken from neighboring farms until our approach, might 
yet be in hiding there, though at that time \ did not know 
there was but little machinery remaining in the building, or 
that it was a mere wreck of broken timbers and decaying 
boards and had been quite deserted except by rats and water 
moccasin snakes for many years. 

However, up to that time, while I had noticed the mill 
building was dilapidated and deserted and that its machinery 
was running, I really had given little attention to the circum- 
stance, except to remark it. 


CHAPTER V. 


AN INSANE WOMAN’S APPEAL. 

F or as we left the roadway and were passing through the 
lawn and gardens of the mansion house on the hill, be- 
ing compelled to do so for want of room for the troops 
to pass to the mill site where we had orders to camp, I had 
seen, surrounded by negroes, an insane white woman, the 
mistress of the house and estate, who we were informed by the 
blacks had been the object of the constant care of all. 

In fact that the sole duty of all the people we saw about her 
and of all others on the olace, for very many years, had been 
to minister to her slightest want, and that she was insane 
through grief for a lost husband that she could never be 
made to understand was dead. 

We had not long to observe the frantic woman, but during 
one of the regiments’ halts incident to the passing of other 
troops and their artillery pieces along the somewhat narrow 
way, the crazed woman coming close to the men standing in 
the night, still in search of her lost one, wrung her hands and 
using excellent language, denoting her high education and 
training, piteously appealed to the soldiery, '‘Oh, return my 
lost husband to me. Oh, for God’s sake, for my sake, wont 
you all return him to me?” “Gentlemen, kind gentlemen, go 
down to the old water mill where he left me to wait for him. 
Oh, find him and return him to me, ha! ha! ha!’' 

When the pallid faced, wrinkled cheeked, prematurely old 
woman, as gentle as a little child, and quite as harmless, her 
robes of white, and snowy hair seen by the light of our torch- 
es, her hands raised heavenward in her appeal, laughed the 
wild laugh of the hopelessly insane, then there floated out 
15 


16 


THA OLE WATAH MILL 


on the night air, in soft southern accent, each word going 
straight to the heart of every dust- begrimed soldier halted 
there, the final appeal of that distraught soul, that appeal, that 
now for thirty-eight years of my life, since that moment, has 
rung in my ears, as ever the gloom of night has encompassed 
me about. Still, often as composing myself and I fain would 
sleep, I stand there in the night in that mighty throng about 
that crazed creature and hear a sweet voice as a figure in white 
standing in front of an old-tim.e Kentucky mansion house, ex- 
tending its long bony arms, cries into the deaf ear of fate, an 
awful uncompromising fate, that would it hear, would only 
further condemn: 

‘‘ Through all the tempestuous year agone. 

Mid blinding tears, still waiting on 
For thee, my loved one, my lost! 

On cresting sea of sorrow tossed. 

This imprisoned heart, drifting a lee 
Chained on prison bark, has been calling thee. 

Yearning for a lost love, weeping the nights away! 

While, nere from below, above, has faintest ray 

Of briefest hope streamed the darkness through 

As if to ope the closed door of fate anew 

With key of hope. Vain hope, ah, no! no! not for me 

Is there light in faintest scope, I may not see 

Its rays pierce the gloom, dispelling the mold 

In my lover’s tomb! Ah, could I but unfold 

Thy wedding-garbed form, dead, cold, in my embrace, 

Thawed, thy veins along thy frozen blood should trace 

Its wonted way; rich, strong, pulsing with life apace. 

Or, failing, I would lay beside thy consuming mold 
The ashes of thy bride, with thine to mingle in the wold 
In sleep eternal. Ah! ah! how sweet the thought! 

To sleep, for there, none despair, or suflfer aught.” 


CHAPTER VI. 


UNDER THE SYCAiWORE TREES. 

W E moved away from the house group to the foot of 
an incline and were soon engaged preparing our 
resting place for the night. While supper was being prepared 
by our lately acquired negro boy, a gray headed old farm 
hand who had left stable work on a farm and had come to 
us in search of his freedom and to cook, we had leisure to 
commiserate the sad condition of the heart broken woman 
and though still compelled to listen to her voice, to observe 
our surroundings. 

We found we had camped beside a narrow stream of clear- 
est water eddying on between grassy banks; that we were lo- 
cated on the margin of an old-time water mill race under the 
spreading branches of overhanging sycamore trees as far as 
we could see in the uncertain light along the race in stately 
rows, their great white trunks and far reaching limbs tower- 
ing into the night beyond the light of our camp fires. 

From further up the stream, where a mill dam stretched 
its rocky arms from shore to shore in its efforts to direct the 
flowing waters between the grassy slopes of the old mill race, 
came to us the sound of falling waters leaping past all re- 
straints. It was a sheet of water, as I in after years saw, 
tumbling in fretted billows, and in silver spray, falling among 
a long ridge of broken stone below the mill dam, to swirl 
about, to stretch away in long lines of glistening beads and 
flecks of foam in its efforts to distance in the race to the next 
cascade, great or small, its former companions, the tiny, rip- 
ling waves, the limpid sparkling flood so long its running 
17 


18 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


mates in the journey already come, over shelving ledge, in 
cooling shades of lofty cliff, past rolling hillside, sometimes 
to spread about in sunny marsh, but now gathered into the 
confines of the narrow mill race compelled to crowd its wa- 
tery way under the old s^/camore trees, finally to be drunk in 
by the great water wheel, the moss covered water wheel, now 
seen to be wabbling, heard to be screaking its way about, its 
broken rotted buckets, where they still held fast, filled with 
the waters which by their weight turned the old water wheel, 
slower, still slower, as the broken buckets released their gulp 
of it to almost stop stock still, before the next leaking, warp- 
ed maw had sipped its fill, v/hen, with renewed energy, the 
old water wheel, screaking on, would spill its captive, the im- 
prisoned water, into the waiting pool below, free at last to 
race away, to rejoin the flood it was seperated from at the old 
mill dam. 

So the old water wheel at the lower end of the old time 
mill race hobbled on, and in the act of freeing the impatient 
waters from imprisonm.ent, turned the hewn wood shaftng, 
and home made wood cog wheels, and the great bastard lime- 
stone, corn stone in the mill, whose every segment was jcut 
and shaped from native materials by native negro mechanic 
hands on the spot where now it wabbled about in its jerks and 
stops, but still trying to poise on the giddy apex, always oc- 
cupied by old-time upper mill stones, ever wailing out an ac- 
companiment seemed to me to the sad lament we had heard 
from the lips of the distracted creature we had been compelled 
to hear as we were waiting our turn to pass in the narrow 
way by the mansion on the hill. 

1 sat among the twisted roots of the sycamores, tired, hun- 
gry, waiting for our field hand to prepare supper, when the 
sound of the falling waters at the mill dam, the groanings of 
the old mill machinery, at the foot of the mill race, the grate- 
ful fumes rising from the jet black coffee boiler at our mess 
tire, fused. 


UNDER THE SYCAMORE TREES. 


19 


1 forgot all about the insane woman’s shriek and slept, to be 
aroused finally from a restful sleep by a familiar voice, a 
voice often heard about our night camp fires. It was the 
voice of a major of an Illinois regiment now and for a year 
past brigaded with ours, the 45th Ohio Infantry. In fact, it 
was a frequent occurrence in our mess for all the sleepers to 
turn out to listen to the Illinois major’s stories as soon as his 
voice was heard. On this particular occasion, however, by 
some chance, 1 was the only one left at our tent and camp 
fire, all the rest of the people being away on special duty con- 
nected with the possible defense of Cedar bridge should Pe- 
gram’s confederates attempt to recross. 


CHAPTER VII. 

THE ILLINOIS MAJOR TALKS, TALKS. 

S OON as Major spoke all opportunity, if not desire for 
further sleep, was gone and I was wide awake. At the 
instant of my waking, major was busily engaged in trying to 
balance a live fire coal on the apex of a pyramid of smoking 
tobacco piled high on his pipe, but with indifferent success, 
yet he, as usual talked right ahead while he slapped his singed 
fingers against his boot leg, and as if in full compensation for 
his mishap, wreathes of his favorite smoke from his old com- 
panion, his pipe, went circling about his head. And without 
ever loosing a puff at the pipe, major, still rubbing his singed 
fingers, went on to say: 

“See here, Ohio, are you sure youT awake? A hard march 
that to-day, and a fearful place to camp in, I tell you. WeTe 
surrounded by high, stony cliffs with only two possible ways 
of escape. A veritable trap, but I guess General Smith knows 
what he is doing and Pegram dont. We can go to the rear 
on the road unless cut off. If we advance, Pegram meets us 
at the south end of the bridge, sure. Of course we cant get 
out of this insane asylum by water. ThaPs what it seems to 
me to be, nothing but an insane asylum. Why, up there in 
the big house, mostly filled by niggers and dogs — M reckon,' 
as a Kentuckyian would say, is the sweet voiced, heart-broken 
old white woman 1 saw you listening to as we went by. It 
made my heart ache to hear her, and I was only too glad to 
pass on and let you do the listening. I have since talked with 
an old black wench at the brick house who told me the white 
woman was her mistress and owns all of the colored folks on 
the place, only she dont know i^ or anything else, poor soul! 
20 


THE ILLINOIS MAJOR TALKS, TALKS. 


21 


Seems the lady is often frenzied, and always quite insane be- 
cause of the murder of her husband, which the distracted soul 
dont understand at all. She can’t be brought to realize that 
he IS dead, the wench says, but thinks him still alive, and is 
ever calling after him. 

“God rest her soul, I dont know when 1 have been so un- 
nerved as 1 have since hearing her sad voice to-night. After 
following an enemy all day, hoping to catch up with him, 
only to see him slip away through a gap like this at the last 
minute and then to run into such distressing surroundings 
dont leave a fellow in very good shape and 1 wonder you can 
lie down and sleep at ail. The niggers stay by the woman 
night and day, they tell me. They are all under the direction 
of a slave man, the blackest creature 1 ever saw. 

“The negroes talk about a murder once committed here. 

“That’s what bereft their mistress of her reason, and you 
heard her pleading with the boys, and talking about the old 
mill out there in the night, didn’t you? It seems from what 
I have been able to gather the killing was done a long time 
ago and near, or in the mill, but you mention the subject as 1 
have to a black man or woman and they’ll shut up like a 
clam. You’ll have to pry their shells open before you can 
get them to say one word about the old wreck. Near as I 
can learn the old mill has been closed by the orders of its 
owners for about fourteen years. There isn’t a white, saying 
nothing about the poor negroe slaves, in all the country round, 
they tell me, who in all that time has been inside the old 
building. 

“It may sound strange to you, but do you know, the more I 
have heard the negroes talk about the old mill, the more 1 
have desired to be the first man, who in fourteen years has 
explored its dark recesses? And there has come to me the 
suspicion that the negroes may be afraid to tell us all the 
truth, and that while there may have been a tragedy enacted 
here in which the white woman’s husband lost his life, proba- 
bly one of Kentucky’s feuds for which the fighting people of 


22 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


tliis state are so famous, the confederates have taken advan- 
tage of the evil reports concerning the old mill and have secret- 
ed themselves in it, not being able to get away on the rapid 
approach of our advance this evening, and they may have 
started the old water wheel going for the purpose of grinding 
corn for army rations. 

“The negroes knowing this, you see, would be afraid to tell 
the truth, for there will be a neighborhood full of southern 
sympathizers here to punish them after we are gone. But all 
the same, there may have been a murder long ago, a devot- 
ed wife became insane because of it, the mill building has 
been closed all right, and still, a squad of Johnnie rebs be in 
there right now. 

“So 1 have been thinking of going through the mystery 
while the army waits for daylight. With this in view, as I 
came along 1 walked as close to the building as 1 could, it be- 
ing partly set out over the running water on stone piers. 
Not having a light 1 could see little or nothing, but smelled 
enough to convince me the whole outfit is rotten and ready 
for burial.” 


CHAPTER VIII. 

AN ILLINOIS STORY BY THE MAJOR. 

T hen Major after refilling his pipe from his vest pocket, 
resumed his smoking, and of course his talking. 

“The closing of the old water mill'' said he, “reminds me 
of the closing of old man Porter's general store in our county 
of Fulton out there in Illinois. Beat anything I ever heard 
of. Fulton county is a place where people raise black hogs, 
the stuff to fatten them on, and kiver their log houses and 
frame with clapboards made right there in the white oak tim- 
ber. Lots of folks are clearing patches out there who came to 
‘Elenoi' from the southern states. They still color their 
clothes with walnut and butternut juice and vote the demo- 
cratic ticket. But there's nothing like being consistent and 
staying with your blood, as the Kentuckyians say, T reckon' 
they're all mighty fine folks out there, I tell you, and the 
latch string will open the ‘do' for the pulling. 

The boys talk about Kentucky women, why, pshaw, they 
don't count, of wouldn't count in the game if out in Fulton 
county, among western mothers and their girls who don't de- 
pend on no nigger auntie to mix their ‘cawn bread' for them. 
You can bet you'l live a long time out in Illinois before you'l 
see a woman sucking at a dip stick. 

“The county used to be democratic though, and there's 
some trouble now about the draft along Spoon river down 
about Otto and Astoria, but the state of Illinois is far away 
republican since Stephen A. Douglas made his last speech. 
That is, the people are supporting the Union armies and the 
women don't dip any more. 

“But I began to tell you about the closing of the Porter 
23 


24 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


store. Mr. Porter had, since the settlement of the Military 
Tract north of the Illinois river, kept one of the principal 
general stores of all that country. It was in Lewistown, the 
county seat. While the old store keeper had been growing 
gray and honorable, he had also grown rich, just keeping up 
with the demands made at his counters for the things he sold. 

“You know the Illinois settler generally’^comes by steam- 
boat up the Illinois if he enters land in the Military Tract. 
Well, the first settlements were made in the timber along the 
river because it was thought the vast prairies of the state, ly- 
ing just beyond their limits, could never be inhabited except- 
ing perhaps by cattle herders, and the then roving bands of 
Indians, the real owners of the soil, as there surely could not 
be water enough on the vast unsettled Illinois plains, far from 
the few rivers, for stock all the year through, saying nothing 
about crops, hence the natural thing for the settler to do was 
to clear a patch for corn in the woods as near the Illinois riv- 
er as he could find land to enter, or a quarter section to trade 
a horse and a rifle gun for. 

“So it was Mr. Porter started a store in the woods among 
the settlers near the Spoon and Illinois rivers at what afer- 
wards was the splendid trading town of Lewistown. There 
among the breaks in the timber on the margin of probably 
as fine black prairie land as the world of successful farmer 
men have since learned to know the value of, the Illinois 
prairies, Mr. Porter started his store among the white oak 
tree stumps, for the settlers soon reduced much of the timber 
to stumps, burning the balance of the tree to make room for 
his patch, his log house and the towns. 

“That was about the time John Dixon, ‘Old Nachusa,’ the 
Indians called him, started his ferry on Rock river after cross- 
ing the almost boundless uninhabited plains then lying be- 
tween what now are the cities of Peoria, the second city in 
the state, and the city of Dixon, on Rock river. 

“They say its a fact that the first Chicago land records were 
made on the books of Fulton county at the town in the 


AN ILLINOIS* STORY BY THE MAJOR. 


25 


woods Mr. Porter chose as the location for his store. 

‘The name Porter spoken anywhere in Fulton county to- 
day, remember now, causes no blush to mantle any man’s 
or woman’s cheek. 

“Well, where was I? What I wanted to say was: One 
day for some reason of his own, I never did hear just why — 
but rumor said because somebody had once said that the 
riches of earth might tend to retard the unfortunate possessor’s 
entrance into heaven. But be this good man’s reason what 
it may have been, Mr. Porter for his own reasons shut his 
store against the public, and shut it tight. It was something 
like thi>, one evening after the big corner store room had been 
crowded all day long with appreciative customers engaged in 
swapping their farm produce, taking in exchange such mer- 
chandise as they required from Mr. Porter’s store, and if there 
was a balance due the store which was more than probable, 
telling Mr. Porter to charge it, and they would come in and 
settle as soon as they could do so. On that day, after the 
women folks had bought what they wanted and had picked 
out lots of nice things they hoped sometime to be able to get, 
and had gathered together their empty butter jars, and bought 
an almost forgotten plug of tobacco for the use of the boys, 
and said good bye to Mr. Porter and had promised him to 
fetch in some live feathers, or beeswax at some future time 
to balance the account standing against them, the old store- 
keeper helped the women into the farm wagons, or their sad- 
dles, as was often the case; he put up the huge wood shutters 
of the big store doors and the store windows, he pushed the 
big iron pin through the hole in the great iron bar and that in 
the window good and secure. This all done according to 
regulations of many a year’s standing, Mr. Porter set all the 
benches inside the store the customers had been lounging on 
outside, as they talked religeon, crops and the last brand of 
politics. Then he shut to the great hobnailed front doors, 
pushed the door bolts below and above to their utmost limit, 
turned the great iron key in the huge iron lock, hung the key 


26 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


on its accustomed wood peg on the door casing, keyed the 
window shutter bolt tight, as he had done for years and years 
every evening during all the time the people of the country 
had been engaged in learning as they grew up and got hold 
of a dollar or a coon skin to fetch it to Porter's store, so that 
he knew everybody, and everybody in all that country round 
knew Mr. Porter, and so his trade was established beyond 
preadventure. But for all that, after the shutting of the win- 
dow and the locking of the doors, and the keying of the shut- 
ter bolts, as long as the old merchant lived, (and he stayed 
right there on that fine business corner for many years after 
that closing day,) if a single ray of sunshine ever found its 
way into that closed room where the spiders, unmolested were 
engaged weaving their webs among hanging trace chains, 
farm harness, men's boots, ox yokes, and the moth consum- 
ing shelf and drawer fabrics, great rolls of cloth, delicate piece 
goods, and clothing stuffed in and piled up high everywhere, 
unless Mr. Porter's benevolent face peeked into that dark 
room, to mark the ravages of the heavy hand of tim.e, then 
the g:reat fat spiders and opulent worms owed the coming of 
the light to cheer or disturb, as the case might be, to the open 
key hole in the hobnailed front doors, for certainly, no ray of 
light could ever enter there otherwise, for I have been told, 
Mr. Porter during the remainder of a long, and to others a 
helpful life, never reopened the locked window or the doors 
of that famous country store again, and that the administra- 
tor on his large estate was the first to enter that forbidden 
place. 

“Now it seems to me here's a case something like that out 
in our town. A wellknown grist mill, located on a never- 
failing stream of water, on a site occupied by a grinding mill 
since the early days of the country, where the white people 
had been having corn ground to give bread to their negroes 
since the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, and 
that too in as good an agricultural district as was the country 
tributary to Lewistown and Mr. Porter's general store, and 
that's saying a good deal 1 tell you, is shut tight for years and 
years, while the water runs away unused and some other mill 
gets the business to do. 


CHAPTER IX. 


AS THE BACON FRIED AND THE COFFEE POT 
STEAMED. 

i I AM told there isn't a white man on this place — all ni^- 
^ ^ers. The whites all left the country at our coming. 
All day long as we marched through as fine an agricultural 
section as there is in the state, the whites, rich and poor, have 
been hurrying across Cedar bridge, and excepting at Shaker 
Town and Harrodsburg, we hardly saw a white man of military 
age. All gone south expecting to return with a confederate 
army to free the Commonwealth from Yankee rule, and drive 
Burnside's forces north of the Ohio river. 

‘The Johnnies under John Morgan and Humphrey Mar- 
shall, have been scouring this country for months hunting for 
Yank's and lit out only on our approach for fear they might 
find us. So if the whites are gone and there are no nigger 
farmers or confederate soldiers to run the mill, and it was 
stopped long ago, good and fast like old Mr. Porter's store, 
why is it now running? That's what is bothering me. Are 
the spiders and worms doing business? 

“Well, I should say! If there isn't any whites here in Ken- 
tucky, there's lots of niggers. They are everywhere except 
at work in the fields. The men loaf around camp, begging to 
be taken away from the place they have known as home all 
their lives, while the black wimin are ready to pile their bun- 
dles of clothing on their heads and tramp to freedom and starv- 
ation. 

“Colored men as old as Moses hang about camp wanting to 
27 


28 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


be soldiers. The facts are the bottom has fallen out of the 
southern system of labor. Everybody but the crossroads 
stage house keepers with cellars full of barreled whiskey, they 
now find a market for, are scared out of their wits, crazy, 
why, crazy is no name for it!^ 

'‘I heard a soldier ask a black woman as 1 came here if the 
Johnnies had been grinding corn in the mill. After looking 
about her to see if any ghosts were listening she said: 'The 
ole watah mill sah! why, deedy 1 don’t know sah, is it run- 
nin, Mastah, are you mighty shore.^’ Then after a long pause 
she went on to say, as though afraid the soldier himself would 
hear her: 'We alls cullud folks nevah looks that way aftah 
night, deedy we don’t, leastways we don’t sence Mistus Clar- 
risy’s infah, and th -t’s a long time ago, I reckon. We nevah 
talks about the ole watah mill after night, deedy we don’t, 
suah.’” 

Major now leaned back in his seat am.ong the sycamore 
tree roots and after reminding me of the nice seats always to 
be found along creek banks among the bared tree roots on 
the road from home to country school houses, and each seat 
just in the right place for a school boy to sit in the shade and 
catch flies and fish, as though he had uttered not a word for 
an hour, proceded to keep us both awake as the bacon fried 
and the black coffee pot steamed. 

"Its all a sham I tell you. Whatever may be the matter 
with the wreck called a mill, crazy or sane, these people are 
confederate sympathizers, niggers and whites. Not a man or 
woman, black or yellow, on this farm, has shown any desire 
to go with us, while the contrary has been the case with all 
other blacks we have met. The people we saw huddled about 
the crazy white woman are simply trying to mislead us, what- 
ever the woman's condition may be. 

Why, Humphrey Marshall, commanding Pegram’s rear, 
hardly had time to cross the bridge as our advance struck the 
top of the hill above the bridge, so how about the probability 


AS THE BACON FRIED AND THE COFFEE POT STEAMED. 29 

that some belated mill hands were left secreted behind the 
noise of the crazy machinery, in the mill building. Of course 
could they have gotten away the mill would have been stop- 
ped. The niggers have simply been putting us on the wrong 
track. ITs wonderful the slaves on this place should be an 
exception to the general rule and be so attached to their mas- 
ters in rebellion, when their ultimate freedom and starvation 
depends on the success of our troops. 

“1 came over to say, as you and I are off duty to-night, I 
propose we look through the old rookery for ourselves, and 
if there’s anything mysterious in there, or any Johnnies, why, 
we’ll take them in, that’s all.” 

1 don’t remember if 1 gave any assent by words to my 
good friend’s proposition, but supper being ready, we two 
piled our tin pans with warmed over baked beans, fried bacon, 
crisp and hot, some stewed dried apples nice and sweet, then 
we had a loaf of fresh baker’s bread from Mack Kinzey’s bak- 
ery lately attached to our regiment, besides our men had been 
foraging as was shown by the presence of a nice roll of what 
once was yellow butter, now badly mussed, then there was a 
quart of hot coffee for each of us with a sprinkle of real 
cream in it from the mansion house on the hill. Then we 
had for a roundup, a skillet of nicely browned fried hardtack, 
sweatened to taste, which latter dish any soldier will say would 
make any supper quite complete. 

After supper, we again took our places in the arm chairs 
among the sycamore tree roots, there to smoke and talk and 
nod as the hours went by, waiting for the time when we 
should be able, unobserved, to start on a visit to the interior 
of the old water mill, for my silence on the Major’s proposi- 
tion to explore it had by him been considered as giving con- 
sent. 

The camp fires about us and far away towards Cedar 
bridge had burned low and excepting the sentries on our regi- 
mental lines and some laggard army teams coming in, the 
camp was asleep, but we, the major and I, smoked on. At 


30 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


last 1 found myself skirting the border lands of sleen, while at 
the same time and with indifferent success I tried to listen to 
my friend’s voice as I went further and further away into that 
country from which traveler’s do return— dream land. And 
1 must have slept soundly for some time of which no note 
was taken, all earthly things including its discordant sounds 
and my comrade’s voice having given way to unconsciousness, 
when. Major, shaking me vigorously to wakefullness, I heard 
him say: 

‘‘Here you, your pipe almost rolled into the hot ashes when 
it fell from your mouth. Better be careful, for should Hnm- 
prey Marshall turn on us, and you be captured and sent to 
Andersonville, if the Johnnies don’t lift your tobacco you’ll 
need it for many a day before you get out. 

“See here,’' said Major, “I have a candle and three matches, 
all Mack Kinzie, the baker, could spare, until his teams come 
in with the sutler goods. Mack says he rode ahead of his 
heavy wagons leaving them with the train on the outskirts of 
Harrodsburg to follow. But Mack brought his bake oven and 
lighter wagons with him all right, though it was risky business 
traveling in an enemy’s country alone, I tell you. Mack says 
his bakers will work all night, and if the field hospitals and 
headquarters don’t requisition it all, there will be a loaf of 
fresh bread for each man in the regiment— long before he is 
ready for breakfast in the morning for he has the flour to 
make it and lots of good potato yeast besides.” 


CHAPTER X. 

A PATRIOTIC MEETING AT HARRODSBURG. 

^ ^ l-J A- HA! HA!'' laughed Major. ‘‘Kinzey is a great 
talker and has more real good hard cheek than any- 
body. Why, do you know, he isn't a bread baker at all, only 
a Cincinnati gentleman out of a job, so he takes up baking 
for the 45th Ohio, Infantry. Kinzey saysashecame through 
Harrodsburg, a few hours after the brigade went through, he 
found the Rebels of the burg had all found their way out of 
their hiding places, and were on the streets and about the lone 
hotel again spilin for a fight, while the wimin were running 
about begging their husbands and brothers to keep cool and 
not risk their lives unnecessarily, for ^Gineral Marshall' they 
said, would stop the Yanks when he got ready to take them 
anyway. Mack said if there were any Union men at all in 
Harrodsburg their turns must have come for them to crawl 
into their holes, Lincoln troops having passed on instead of 
stopping to fortify the town as the Rebs had expected them to 
do, for not an Union man could be found. Mack likes a 
drink when he's dry, he says, as good as anybody unless the 
anybody should happen to be a straight born Kentuckyian. 
So, being a little dry himself, after riding in the dust a mile 
from his own wagons for a full hour with not a thing to take 
unless it was the hard lime water found running from the 
springs as he passed along the turnpike road, when he got to 
Harrodsburg he went into the hotel to find moisture where 
there seemed to be a gathering of citizens of the Common- 
wealth for that same purpose, of course, but particularly to 
express their unbounded indignation because an army of fed- 
31 


32 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


eral troops without the consent of the Governor Beriah 
Magoffin, had ruthlessly invaded the County of Mercer and 
its capitol, the City of Harrodsburg. He found the hotel bar 
room crowded by an indignant populace, the Yanks all gone 
away excepting a long loitering army wagon train guarded by 
cavalry to take care of them. Mack said the people who had 
been shut in their cellars all day, as ‘the Lincolnites' went 
along their streets wondering where the men folks were, were 
almost carried off their feet with enthusiasm, or something 
better to take, by the time Kinzie got there. Mack said every- 
body was chuck full of speeches and other stuff, and all who 
were not activelv engaged drinking at somebody’s expense, 
who it was understood was to address the meeting later on, 
had drunk and were talking as loud as they could, denounc- 
ing the ‘lop-eared Dutch’ Yankee soldiers who had toted their 
guns through their town, or were standing about like gentle- 
men waiting another turn to drink. Drink? Why, of course, 
everybody drinks, because John Will Pore’s distillery is only 
five miles away from town, and the best copper distilled is 
only thirty-five cents a gallon, by the jug, spring water meas- 
urement. You see, the custom in Kentucky at such social 
happenings as Mack found himself taking part in, is to keep 
an account of the glasses emptied, they are always full, you 
know, the vigilance of the individual guarding his rights in- 
sures that, count the glasses and throw them into gallons, and 
there you are. The man its on pays for the gallons, see? 

“Ha! Ha! Ha! Mack thought the drinking part of the in- 
dignation meeting all right, especially as the man who kept 
the account of glasses filled and emptied, passed one when his 
turn came, thinking him an old friend from Nicholasville, Jes- 
samine county, and so he kept his mouth shut tight, whether 
he agreed or differed with general opinion when the exigen- 
cies of the service at the bar required it, so everybody was 
chuck full of indignation or the thirty-five cent whiskey, one, 
and Mack couldn’t tell which. They were so full of it many 


A PATRIOTIC MEETING AT HARRODSBURG. 33 

groups silently shook hands, neighbor with neighbor, each un- 
derstanding without words how deeply their feelings had 
been outraged by the Yankee invasion of the neutral border 
state of Kentucky. It was a critical moment for Mack I tell 
you, for he was liable to be embraced at any moment by 
some heart-broken patriot who would question him as to how 
many recruits for the defense of the liberties of the state could 
be depended on on his ‘crick' well knowing the first word his 
northern tongue uttered would give him away and cut him 
oflP from all further participation in the indignation meeting, 
to say the least. 

“When a fine appearing country gentleman, evidently aland 
and slave owner, a man of great prominence, and no little 
military education and experience, if only in the state militia, 
climbed with some assistance to the seat of a wood chair to 
address the meeting preparatory to the main speech of the 
evening, and to cheer the now deep-feeling assemblage, for 
you see they were still keeping count on the glasses. The 
fine old gentleman was dressed in blue jeans clothing through- 
out, with great bright brass buttons in profusion, a wide soft 
drooping white slouched hat cocked up behind and pulled 
down over his eyes, standing collar, a broad black stock about 
his neck, and butternut leggings to his knees tied about his 
leg by a long black tape, while his riding spurs clanged as he 
took his place on the chair. The old gentleman after saying 
that but for his years he felt that his place was in the field 
helping to repel the invasion, as he said. To cheer the meet- 
ing he went on to tell of the new fortifications now being 
completed away down on the Summerset road beyond Stan- 
ford. He was closely listened to as he drew a word picture 
of the ‘lop-eared Dutch' pilling into the deep ditch then be- 
ing dug in front of the new confederate earth works, and of 
their vain efforts to pass the sharpened tree limbs and rifle- 
men on its flanks. The old gentleman said he was willing to 
stake his reputation as ‘Kunnel,' among neighbors who had 


34 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


known him all his life, that the Lincolnites would never get 
south of that fortification: 'But, gentlemen, gentlemen,' he 
said, 'of cose the Yanks will stop, it would be murderous, 
gentlemen, shore murder to foce the nawthen hirelins to try 
to stand up any whar in range of patriots behind sich ahmy 
works.' 

"Mack's teams were out by the Harrodsburg 'cote' house 
square waiting for him to start, the drivers knowing they still 
had a long drive ahead of them, and a little anxious because 
they were to push on ahead of the guarded train. Mack was 
tired himself, and thinking to give the boys with the baking 
outfit time for a rest and to water, took plenty of time to en- 
joy his surroundings and stowe away his full share of the 
thirty-five cent whiskey, never paying a cent, for that would 
have been a violation of custom. But he bought a Kentucky- 
made cigar because they weren't being given away as souve- 
nirs at the speaker's expense with the full glasses. 

“Lighting the stogy he sat himself down in a far corner of 
the room where he would be the least observed, and smoked, 
and got dry. By that time everybody had refreshed, and 
following the old man's speech were in capital humor be- 
cause of the military probabilities presented to them. By 
that time Mack had concluded he was ready to go, when there 
was a gathering in the middle of the room somewhat away 
from the bar. A table was set out, and an elderly looking 
man steadied by many hands as he stepped from a chair to 
the table top, took the leadership. Just then he heard a tall, 
soldierly looking man standing near saying: 'Now youall 
gentlemen stop talkin' and hear what Cappen Simmons has 
to say, he's been right thar hisself, and only come home from 
the confedrit ahmy to sortah look 'round about his own bus- 
iness in lands and niggahs.' 

"So the crowd went on smoking and drinking while the 
'Cappen' by that time fairly poised on the card table went on 
to say: 'Gentlemen, I'm mightily bleeged to youall, 1 am. 


A PATRIOTIC MEETING AT HARRODSBURG. 35 

shorely, for the g»^eat honah, niy fellow citizens, youalTs 
conferin’ on me by histin of me, an old soldiah in the Kain- 
tucky State Gahd, dare up onto the top of this cahd table to 
address you all on this impohtant 'casion, I am. Weall 
from ouah cellah, bahn and attic windahs, have witnessed to- 
day the most powful disgrace ouah fair land of Kaintucky 
was evah subjected to. A no less disgrace, my countrymen, 
than the maachin of a Yankee ahmy ovah the free soil of 
grand ole Mercer county in which youall as white chillens 
were bawn, and that too my countrymen, the maachin I m^n, 
without the consent of Governah Beriah Magoffin’s govern- 
ment of the Commonwealth of Kaintucky, a dare violation 
of the rights of the states, gentlemen, a dare violation, sahs. 
The sacred soil of the great state of Kaintucky for the first 
time has felt the pressure of the tyrant's heel. His hirelings’ 
tread has polluted this land of liberty, it has, and you and I 
peacable citizens that we are, not wishin’ to attack Burnside’s 
whole ahmy by ourselves, have all the long day past been 
occupy in’ ough cellahs and bahns, rathah than bring on an on- 
pleasantness with the maraudin foce. It’s an outrage gentle- 
men, an outrage, I tell youall, and one I will resent, swode in 
this good right hand of mine, jess as soon as I kin git through 
the lines to my ole regiment now gittin’ ready to drive Gin- 
eral Grant from Chatanooga. It had been hoped, my coun- 
trymen, that Kaintucky’s neutral position in this wah of 
northen oppression, would have been respected by the tyrant 
Linken now ratlin round in the cheer of the immortal Jeemes 
Buchanan, at Washington, it had, but no, instid of maachin 
his soldiahs from the abolition states way round the sacred 
soil of old Kaintucky, to attack and murder the people of 
Tennessee as he is now doin, what do we see from ouah cel- 
lah windahs, what do you see, while ouah wives and daugh- 
tahs are compelled to smile and smile up stairs jest as though 
we nevah hid down there at M? What do we see.^^ By 
standin’ on an old whiskey barrel, we see passin’ through the 


36 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


land of Magoffin, Bucknah, and A1 Berry, of Campbell coun- 
ty, and Henry Clay, of Ashland, the tyrant's host. Are we 
slaves, gentlemen? Will we submit? Remembah I’m askin you. 
It makes my blood bile gentlemen, bile! No, thanks, not any 
more now, sah. Wait, my good friens. I’ll jest taste another 
glass full when I’m done skinnin Linken and his ahm*y for 
ruthlessly invadin ouah home land while so many of ouah 
fightahs are doin their whole duty to the suthen cause of 
freedom in a sistah state away down south. 

‘Now gentlemen, 1 want to draw youall a picchah to tote 
home with you, if you’r not already too heavily loaded. It’s 
a sketch from real life, or will be when the real life is enacted. 
A sketch of what’s shorely gwine to happen as planned. I 
say to happen to Gineral Smith’s command in the ahmy of 
Gineral Burnside whose soldi ahs at least yoah sweethahts see 
goin’ maachin’ through Harrodsburg today, and were com- 
pelled to entertain as noble Kaintucky ladies know how to 
do, because yoah own time was so engaged as not to adm.it 
of seein’ yoah callers ceptin from cellah windahs and sitch. 

“The picchah is like this: Gineral Pegram the confederit 
hero, with Ginerals John Morgan, Humphrey Maashall, Gin- 
eral Bucknah’s Kaintucky State Gahd, and Mistah A1 Berry, 
of Campbell County Kaintucky, as the ledahs of the fightas. 
Jess for good strategy’s sake, mind you, its a great stragetical 
movement I’m goin' to confide to youall, but on no count 
to be mentioned by you. And you’l undahstand it all by the 
time I’m ready to drink anothah glass full. All the confed- 
erit foces, eludin’ Mistah Berry from Campbell County, Kain- 
tucky, will fall back out of Kaintucky entirely, they will, so 
as to save her soil from bein’ all clotted with the blood of the 
invadahs, as it might not wash aftah the sheddin’. Jess to 
save the ole Commonwealth the silin’ incident to the smearin’ 
should Berry, of Campbell County, meet the invadin’ foces 
here and defeat Burnside’s Ahmy of the Ohio so far from 
his base. Berry’s town across the rivah from Cincinnati, Ohio. 


A PATRIOTIC MEETING AT HARRODSBURG. 37 

The foces named will all fall back gentlemen. Let no Kain- 
tuckyan say they evah will retreat. They will fall back, I 
say, below Summerset Cote House, where they will cross to 
the suthen side of the Ciimbahland rivah, and then the 
Yanks, not knowin’ where John Morgan is, will think theyall 
have crossed. Thinkin that-away, and that they now have a 
foot race before them on the road to Knoxville, Tennessee, 
ovah the rivah the Yanks will all go on their lines of pon- 
toons. Now gentlemen, whafs goin' to happen? Knowin' 
the pi ans and the superiority of the confederit foces long's 
Berry, of Campbell, is with them, its mighty easy to tell. 
The story is a short one. 

“ The Yankees havin’ crossed the Cumbahland the shout 
will go up, 'On to Knoxville! On to Knoxville!’ Then the 
Yanks will light out for Knoxville, leavin’ their pontoons for 
their trains to cross the Cumbahland river on. On to Knox- 
ville they’ll go, and run up agin Pegram’s foces, hard, and 
being defeated, and compelled to retreat they’ll try to recross 
the river on the pontoons, only to find that Gineral Morgan’s 
Kaintucky fightahs have possession of them, while Pegram 
and Humprey Marshall and Bucknah, with Berry, of Camp- 
bell county, Kaintucky, havin’ changed their minds about go- 
in’ straight to Knoxville theyselves, aftah their great victory, 
will all be found crowdin’ the dishahtened Yanks from the 
south, and there you are. Now my fellow citizens, what’s 
going to become of the Yanks? May the good Lawd have 
mercy on them, for Berry won’t have a bit, he won’t. 1 
meahly ask the question, meahly ask it, for any good military 
man kin see the end of Burnside’s ahmy without askin any 
questions. There they are stretched along the suthen side of 
Cumbahland, with the confedrit commandahs, supported by 
Berry, of Campbell, pressin’ them from the south, while 
Morgan looks on from the othah side of the rivah. Do you, 
not bein’ soldiahs, ask me,, what’s goin’ to become of the 
gallant Yanks who bowed to Kaintucky’s fair daughtahs as 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


38 

they went through Harrodsburg to-day, while youall looked 
on from the cellah windahs? 1 reply: Where do all Yanks 
go when they die? Where do they go to? There’s only 
one way out for these pahticlah Yankees aftah meetin’ Berry, 
sides the way I have indicated. That’s by watah, and I’m 
tellin’ youall no Yankee likes watah any bettah than a natch- 
el bawn Kaintuckyan does, he dont, he nevah drinks it, and 
youall knose he neavah uses it to wash hisself. Now youall 
kin see, there’s no way out of the trap the Yanks will be 
in, them that went by ouah cellah windahs to day steppin’ so 
high and singin’ ‘John Brown’s soul goes maachin on,’ while 
we almost kicked the head out of the barl we stood on in the 
cellah. No way out but to swim or fill themselves full of 
watah, and of cose die, for that would kill even a Ken- 
tuckyan. Now I’ve been acquainted with Yanks, all 
right enough, I have, but nevah havin' seen one use any wa- 
tah, and they bein’ so different from hightoned Kaintuckyans, 
peers to me, they’ll all elude to surrendah, rathah than die, if 
they must be drowned in watah.’ 

“Mack said just then he noticed some great big, raw-boned 
patriots drinking at the bar and watching him rather close, so 
prefering to be in the open street with his horse and some of 
the boys, and as the count of glasses drank was being com- 
pleted and the throwing into gallons was about to begin, and 
the jig about up, he started to go away, and as he passed out 
he heard the gentleman on the table saying: ‘Ah thanks 
gentlemen, thanks! Glass rathah full you see, but here’s with 
youall! With you every time! No, no watah for me! No 
watah on casions like this. Drink hahty, drink to the Yankee 
surrendah, for they won’t die if they kin help it, and to the 
health of Berry, of Campbell.’” 


CHAPTER XI. 

AN EXPEDITION AGAINST THE CONFEDERATES. 

B y the time we had finished our laugh Major had put his 
pipe away. His tallow candle was aflame, and without 
ever thinking to buckle my revolver about me, or to go to 
the company mess chests for a supply of either candles, 
matches, or better, to get a lantern, we, without being at all 
adequately equipped for a venture of the nature we were 
starting on as we afterwards found, were away through the 
sleeping squads lying on the ground between us and the mill, 
away for results, whatever they might Drove to be. Fortun- 
ately for this story, our camp was so located under the syca- 
mores by the mill race that no sentries had been posted where 
they could observe our going. We finally stood in the 
blackness of darkness, as we thought near the entrance to the 
mill, discovering that we had not observed when our candle's 
flame left its wick, thus making our surroundings anything 
we might imagine them. In this predicament, afraid to light 
our tallow dip by means of one of the three matches that 
Major had, for fear we might be located by an enemy within 
the mill or a chance watcher without, and our quest be thus 
brought to an end, we concluded to prosecute our search for 
the mill's door in the dark and take the chance of not finding 
it rather than expose ourselves to a shot on the one hand, or 
an arrest on the other. Dark? Well, I should say it was dark. 
As we waded knee deep through what must have been wood 
fiber, mere rotten wood, in our search, it was so dark we 
could see absolutely not a thing; were as if stone blind, but, 
though we had lost our sight, we were not altogether bereft 
of our senses, for we could hear and smell and feel, so that, 
39 


40 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


blind, probably never to see again as a punishment 
meted out for the coming, and doomed to grope our way 
among men, sightless, we were quite conscious we were beside 
a melange of strange sounds, sickened by the foul smells that 
assailed our nostrils, thus accounting as present, our faculties 
of hearing, and smelling. And 1 remember my finger tips, 
as 1 groped about on the rough boards searching for an en- 
trance, were most sensitive. Facts were, our nerves had be- 
come so exceedingly tense we had become a vast aggregation 
of feeling, hearing, smelling, and as we were more and more 
subjected to the dominion of rot and decay, of the sense of 
taste, when my comrade, who, all the while kept close to my 
elbow, whispered into my ear: ‘‘Listen!'' And listening as he 
grasped my arm tighter, we heard, as we thought, voices just 
beyond the boards we were up against, and then our blood as 
if pulsated from a common center, seemed unable to circulate 
in either organization, comrade's or my own, for while freez- 
ing myself the cheek close to mine was cold as ice. But con- 
trolling our chattering teeth in some degree, we each found 
ourselves saying to the other, “A groan, a human groan, list- 
en, a groan!'' thus confirming Major's opinion expressed as 
to there being hiding confederates in the mill, with now added 
probability that one or more were wounded. And as we 
started with a light that we had been seen in our approach, 
again suggesting to us the hazard of our night adventure, for 
we were really at the mercy of a foe we could not see. But, 
after a whispered interview, being assured it was us, by hug- 
ging up close to each other, and relying on a previous ac- 
quaintance with the voices we heard there in the night, we 
agreed we would not retreat as yet, and would only relight 
the candle when satisfied we were inside the mill, or should it 
be necessary to do so in a hasty retreat to enable us to find 
our way out, and not then of course until by untoward cir- 
cumstances compelled to sacrifice one of our three matches^ 
because, there might at the flash of the match, be the sacrifice 
of a life as well, the hidden enemy having the drop. 


AN EXPEDITION AGAINST THE CONFEDERATES. 41 

In thinking of that night's adventures of two young sol- 
dier fellows scarcely arrived at their majorities, and of them 
as officers in the army of their country, often having the is- 
sues of life and death in their hands, and of course reliable, 
now that my hairs are gray and spare, and my sight dim even 
in the sunshine, I wonder we should have undertaken that 
dangerous night venture at all, unless in the line of anincum- 
bant duty, and that we should have been so unprepared for 
defense, for under surrounding circumstances we must have 
known we were at all times on the defensive. Facts are, the 
risks as taken were inexcusable, unless the reader of these 
lines shall conclude after following the devious thread of the 
drama, as by my writings its course is unwound, and thus be- 
ing put in possession of the facts going to make up the story 
of 'The Old Water Mill,” shall determine, that the fates, 
whose decrees unmercifully enforced, had crushed fond, trust- 
ing hearts, extinguished the flames of valuable lives, and re- 
sulting in the final closing of the old mill's doors, and the 
doors of hope as well to one sweet life as witness the distraut 
supplicant who entreated us; barred all these doors long years 
before our coming, again in our turn leading us on in the act- 
ing of our individual parts for the one purpose, that of finally 
completing the settings of the deplorable tragedy, the life and 
death drama enacted in the scenes of sorrow and despair, 
which, as this story is told, like the trail of a serpent will be 
seen to glide in and out through decades of human slavery 
and wrong that southern pulpit oratory once taught was of 
divine appointment. 

The old water mill as we found it, it's story of bloodshed 
yet to be told us, the insane white woman we had seen and 
heard, and the thoughtless young soldiers standing there in the 
night, were all materials to be used in the makeup of the 
scenes and characters of a few chapters of human life yet to 
be written. 

One of the happenings directly in line with the above con- 
clusions and in whose meshes we were now held fast, was im- 


42 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


mediately at hand. In groping about afraid to strike one of 
our limited store of matches for fear it would be shot from 
our grasp, we finally discovered what we took to be jambs of 
a huge door. We then located what we thought to be the 
boards of a slimy mold-covered floor lying between the sides 
of the doorway. Without further ado, excepting to be sure 
the form we felt beside us in the pitchy darkness was that of 
our comrade of field and tent, and not that of some designing 
enemy who had slipped in between us, side by side we 
clambered into the breast-high door way as we thought it to 
be, and in doing so found ourselves on all fours after the 
clambering was over. We at once crawled away on hands 
and knees through the wet, rank mold growing in forests on 
the floor, and a stench we could almost grasp. Away we 
went through ear-splitting sounds and layers of ever-increas- 
ing smells without the slightest consideration as to course or 
methods, not knowing if there was sufficient space above 
our backs to stand erect. Going ever on we ran square up 
against an obstruction rising from the floor and barring our 
way, though by groping out ahead our hands soon passed the 
limits of it and discovered the floor on the other side of it. 
Just why we continued to crawl after getting onto the floor I 
do not know. The obstruction, however, whatever it was, 
from that cause lay immediately beneath our breast. This 
caused us to arise to our feet, when Major, whispering so loud 
anyone could have heard his voice above the din, said: ‘'Here 
now is one of the fellows we are after, he is asleep or pos- 
soming dead, we’ll just take him in to camp as we find him, 
and be able to call our adventure quite successful.” With 
that, 1 thrust my foot forward with the view of routing the 
fellow out and though the man did not seem to move, was 
satisfied I had given the confederate to understand we had 
discovered him. 

But on again stooping to the floor, Major after the most 
thorough search within his arm’s reach of our position, though 
he himself had distinctly felt the body of the man sleeping 
there on the floor, could find no trace of it. He had evident- 
ly moved quickly away at the touch of my foot, gone by 
some route to us unknown. 


CHAPTER XII. 

UNARMED AND WANTS TO RESIGN. 

I T seems to me now, that up to that moment I had not en- 
tertained one serious thought during all the time that had 
elapsed since we left the campfire. But one serious enough 
for all purposes now presented itself for consideration. It 
was: “Where is my revolver, my knife and sword.'' For a 
moment I was appalled with the discovery that I was unarm- 
ed, I had not so much as a toothpick with which to defend 
myself or make aftacR if required by the situation to do so. 
I had listened to the repeating of Mack Kinxy's recital of the 
Harrodsburg speech and of his preseniadon of the bar room 
scene, laughed, followed my comrade without so much as a 
thought as to the requiremen.s or the consequences of the 
venture we were away on, but now having arrived where one 
sane thought could be en ei taired, I did so, and concluded I 
had gone as far without means of defense as it was possible 
for me to go in view of the now evident dangers lurking 
about U3. So, ge.t'ng a li.Je do er lo the person beside me, 
if that wa^ possible, anu in rny most guarded whispers in- 
formed the ear iliere locs.ed of my disarmed and defenseless 
condition, and offered my resig ladon, but comrade vigorous- 
ly protested we were quite equal if not superior lo any prob- 
able requiremeius, stou Jy declaring in an under breath, our 
force with his revolver and old case knife's help, entirely able 
to take cai'e of icself. Then a hand placed a pistol in my 
hand, and as I gra ced ic, a voice close .tO my cheek said: 
“We're in for h now, Ohio, we'll do the best we can. The 
fellow who lays on the floor and the balance of them are as 
bad scared as we are, and that's saying not much for them if 
43 


44 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


your tremblings are any indication of our actual condition. 
If we get into trouble, which seems imminent, unless one side 
or the other runs away, as you propose to do, which we 
wont. But if we do get into trouble I say, why then 1 will 
use the knife, its better than any gun in the dark, it cuts a 
swath one's arm length all about him, you know, blind as it 
IS, while a gun must have eyes or its no good. So if fight we 
must, you drop to the floor so as to be below my knife's 
sweep and out of the way of its edge, and be quick about it 
and wait for a shot." 

Not regarding the plan of campaign as particularly attrac- 
tive to a combatant whose principal business would be to fur- 
nish sight to a blind pi^ol in a contest to be carried on in to- 
tal darkness and at die s?me time lake all the blind cin nces 
of keeping out of the way of keen-edged knives wielded by 
foe and friend, and being somewhat affected by the fearfully 
impure air we were compelled to breathe, saying nothing 
about the probable nearness of a desperate foe, I would have 
declared my utter inability to go further, but for the fact that 
I should have been deserting my comrade had 1 persisted in 
retirement. Besides how was I, alone, without any light, or 
knowledge of the road come save that derived by feeling, to 
find my way out of the old mill. Then again, I was a mere 
hummock as of ice, my limbs were sti f and unwieldy, but 
the frost which had been incrusting me had not as yet fully 
congealed my brain, evidently, for 1 could still think, and so, 
while reaching my finger tips away from me the full limit of 
my arms that I might discover the coming of a foe, and at 
the same time know where Major was, and when to drop as 
ordered to do in case of attack. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


NIGHT DRAGGING BUT NEVER PASSING ITS ETER- 
NAL LENGTH ALONG. 

I WAS being incorporated bodily, seemed to me, into dense 
darkness, if indeed it was so thin its density could be 
measured by any thought of mine. It was a gloom of more 
solidity, it occured to me, as frozen with fear the blackness 
pressed me about, than could be that eternity of darkness 
spoken of by the world’s great writers as being found by im- 
agination in rayless caverns in the center of the globe on 
which man lives, from whence comes all the golden sands 
and diamond rays found in the placer stratas on its surface in 
whose sun shine seekers after beauty and wealth do for a 
brief moment exist. 

I was frozen by fear, I feared I was becoming a mere in- 
discoverable mote in a night dragging but never passing its 
eternal length along. A mere staligmite entombed in space 
among ledges where the reti eaLng footsteps of departing cen- 
turies in the corridors of time— inhabited by the great and 
the small of earth’s su "ace, would me never disturbe. In an 
instant of time as measured by a heart’s bear, I existed for an 
age, in an unsui veyed region, where all unheard by any ear 
save that of creation, ihe explosions of consuming volcanic 
fires have since the expulsion of the rebel forces from heaven 
them kindled, been rending the stony heart of God’s creation 
into bloodless shreds. But not ever listened to, all unheard 
by any demon horde, because forsooth, the imaginings of a 
Dante, or a Milton, sublime and awe inspiring as they are, 
inspiring as they are, challenging the womb of earth 
45 


46 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


to reproduce their peers as delineators of the blessed 
unknown, though their pictures of evil overcoming God’s 
own works of good were groupings of lights and shades 
found hidden away among pigments, of color on their palets 
piled, presenting to superstitious man, when laid on and blen- 
ded by their art, the evergreen foliage of a paradise seered to 
a crisp by a seething breath from a hell, as though forsooth 
their art incomparable though it was, could create demons 
whose breath as an oncoming storm cloud, painted, could 
supplant the climate of God’s own country. Paradise, thus 
terrifying a world of men who know from observation they 
are dying, ever dying as they pass from their cradles to their 
graves. But ever hoping, because of the logic derived from 
their observations of surrounding life creation,. for a waking 
beyond their final sleepings. But who, with all their 
powers sublime, of pen and brush though they laid on colors 
mixed with their own heart’s blood, could not create one ear, 
that could hear, one tongue that could articulate sounds 
of speech. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

LOST IN ABANDONED COAL WORKINGS. 


W ITHIN space of time measured by my heart's pulsa- 
tion, I thought. While the darkness about me is so 
dense I fancy it a solid. I remember that as a mining engineer, 
once lost in the deserted old workings of a mine, I wandered 
through half filled entries and breakings through pillars of 
coal left standing and through deserted rooms where for 
many a year the foot of man had not trod down the mold, 
nor the noise of his presence been heard by the ear of even 
vermin and the awful silence that broods in uninhabited places 
remained unisturbed. I remembered I was once lost fifteen hun 
dred feet below the shutes of a hoisting shaft that had been 
sunk, down, down through in many places great ledges of 
almost solid rock to coal. 

Lost, to grope on through pitiless darkness among exhaust- 
ed workings miles from where was to be found a living soul 
unless mine rats' and serpents' animal instincts are portions of 
creation's intelligence, and instinct and intelligence wherever 
discovered to exist are considered to be evidences of the pres- 
ence of what we must as a finality call creationsoul. I was 
engulphed in- total darkness there in the old mine workings 
because my lamp's flame had become detached from the lamp 
wick and had floated away on some vagrant breath of air. A 
breath I have thought blown out by some frolicsome gnome 
inhabiting nearby crevice in the unmined, shattered coal left 
standing or the rock roof near which I passed. As soon as 
my light was extinguished by the draft of air, I vigorously 
rubbed a match on my boot sole, only to see the light pro- 
duced splutter and then die. 


47 


48 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


At the time of my mishap, as my luck, or the plottings of 
the imps of darkness in the mine would have it, after taking 
some measurements, and observing a section of roof timber- 
ing thought necessary to be renewed, 1 was standing where 
once had been shoveled broken roof spalls, and while fumbl- 
ing about trying to open my match safe and secure one of the 
matches, and also to hold on to my swaying instruments, my 
match safe, with its priceless store of means for producing 
fire, fell from my hands, I felt the falling object strike my 
boot’s upper, and the matches engulphed among the broken 
stone were at once lost to me forever. So that, after wearing 
my fingers to the quick, searching among the sharp edged 
stones for matches and matchbox and at times frantically 
kicking the rats away that now my light was out encircled 
me about, 1 was at last compelled to abandon the fruitless 
search and as best 1 could in the broad light of my knowledge 
of what it meant to be lost in old mine workings but with no 
o)her light than an underground experience consider as calmly 
as 1 could the awful question forced on me. 

Surrounded as 1 am by impenetrable gloom, far beneath 
the surface of the earth, hedged about by great ravenous 
mine rats and possibly other creatures that inhabit and fre- 
quent caves and fissure> in rock leading from the earth’s sur- 
face deep into its vitals, through which they pass and repass 
while neither the underground superintendent of the mines or 
any of his men know where they go, how am 1 without their 
assistance in draging me after them through the narrow fis- 
sures on their routes of entrance and exist, to make my way 
out to light and life. A full knowledge of surrounding diffi- 
culties and the ever increasing of the ever purring rats, almost 
made my heart stand still. Happily however, though 1 had 
no blue print of the deserted workings of the old mine traced 
on memory’s scroll so as to enable me to follow recorded sur- 
veys without a light, yet 1 had a little knowledge possessed in 
common with mine rats who are often compelled to grope 


LOST IN ABANDONED COAL WORKINGS. 


49 


down there without the aid borrowed from the miner's light. 
I knew, if I faced the breath, ultimately, unless 1 should lose 
my own as I had the matches, the current of air traced to its 
source, would lead to light and liberty again. So throwing 
away my compass, as it could be of no use to me, and that 1 
might be divested of all implements. Wrapping my handker- 
chief close about my throat to protect it if attacked while crawl- 
ing on my hands and knees, relying on my craft as an under- 
ground worker, and that source of protection to which all men 
draw nigh as a dernier resort when in trouble — God, and with 
no other aid, I found and faced the flowing air and with it 
went, where I could not then know, went on crawling under 
sagging stones of a falling roof, often flat on my belly, then 
on my knees squeezing my bulk through some narrow place, 
then creeping again under what seemed a bit of falling roof, all 
the time carefully tracing the air, often face on against a brattice 
wall, with worn hands compelled to tear it away so my body 
could go through, ever if possibe keeping the air in my teeth, 
but often as stooping and crawling loosing it, at such times of 
course greatly bewildered, and disheartened, when the rats, 
knowing how nearly ready to fail in my eflforrs to escape, 1 
was, would gather about my halting feet, or go scurrying 
along a rotting timber close to my head, ready to climb my 
legs or jump on me from above, when, hoping to be for a 
moment rid of them, I would start into activity and presently 
feeling the moving air on my cheek again, after gulping a 
mouth full of it, take my course into the eye of the breath, 
to be led again where a sagging roof resting on the frowzy 
mold over grown goaf, disputed the way. 

Not daring to retreat along some rib — following sense of 
feeling, because, starting with the air at my back 1 might lose 
it, so I ever changed directions as to keep it in my face, so 
that I was required to pass through the opening wherever air 
made its way along, this would lead me by the most direct 
route to the air's source, a surface opening into the mine 


50 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


wherever that might be but also compelled me to go through 
many difficult places owing to the sagging of the mine roof, 
and the filling of cutoffs once arranged for the direction of air 
to mine working faces. 

In one instance 1 had stumbled along through an old follow- 
er as I supposed it to be, going over a rotten wood track, 
closely following the pillars of coal and feeling along the de- 
caying wood work put in as air stops where the rib had been 
cut at intervals to pass breath to workers in the places, the 
rats following close all about me for I could hear them fight- 
ing for position as we went, when I began to climb a bank of 
shovelings and soon was creeping between its top and the 
stone roof above, probably the very locality I had come to 
inspect with a view of retimbering if seeming necessary as a 
lake of mountian water formed in prehistoric days in a 
surface depression above, it was feared should the roof 
give way below the water, the sag might extend, enlarging 
fissures as it went, which ultimately might tap the lake’s bot- 
tom above and thousands of tons of water find its way into 
the deserted workings and into the new, as well, destroying 
life, and the property of the company. I had gone up against 
a pile of mine debris, 1 was at its top under the roof trying 
with my bare hands to scoop a way for my body to go 
through, the cool air rushing onto my face all the while. I 
was making good progress and dragging and pushing slowly 
along, now soaking wet from prespiration and the fast drip- 
ping water that trilled through every roof crack, when as I 
moved forward with the utmost difficulty, and was growing 
sick and my blood becoming congested about my heart and 
as it now appears to me was about to utterly ‘ffiespair” 
just above my head was a sharp report, I knew 
what it mean^, a strata of mountain rock had been riven by 
the weight above. Instantly the stone already pressing me 
down, trembled and perceptibly sagged, then a steady 
pressure set in such as I had not before felt. I was slowly 


LOST IN ABANDONED COAL WORKINGS. 51 

being pinned, crushed into the goff on which I laid, I do not 
know if I was filled with horror or if in the agony of my im- 
prisoned soul I cried out as the roof slowly settled on me nor 
how near to the edge of the pile ofshovelings I lay, but 1 re- 
member feeling the fondations beneath me giving way, 1 was 
falling, and my body, freed by the caving beneath it, 
rolled out into the blackness, filling space. 

I was again free to go, and going, as the roof breaking at 
some pillar behind me crashed down, I run, 1 knew not where 
but I ran headlong against a pillar of coal left standing and 
for the moment, though bruised and sore from the crash, re- 
joiced at my deliverance. But it was for a brief moment only 
for the rats soon began to arrive on my side of the avalanche 
of stone, coming around as it then occurred to me by some 
other way, for certainly they had deserted me in the 
trying moments just past. I found myself quite limp, my 
clothes were now saturated with water, my hands were chafed 
and sore, my hair, beard and eyes filled with dirt and my 
whole anatomy sprained and stiffening from the crush I had 
gone through and the impact of stumbling against the coal. 

I was again surrounded by rats. I had no time to consider. 

I was all the more uneasy or say frightfully scared, because I 
knew mine rats had been known in that mine to collect in 
droves and to literally attack men while lunching from their 
dinner pails, in several Instances biting them severely, and 
always on such occasions putting up a sturdy fight for food, 
in fact it was quite common for a mule driver to have to 
fight a rat to save the dinner of his mule, sometimes being 
compelled to move on himself 

Realizing as I did, that the rat herd was gaining in numbers 
as I went, and coming by routes of which I knew nothing and 
likely to attack me at any moment, I was simply appalled, 
for what might not the hungry herde have done with my 
flesh had blood been expressed from my pores during the 
fearful crush they had just gone through, or some stone sliver 


52 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


pierced niy flesh and the oozing blood had been smelled and 
tasted by them, and in spite of all the effort I could put forth 
to steady my nerves and command myself in that moment of 
extreme danger, as I saw the glaring eyes by the aid of the 
light within them about me, the thought would come to my 
sick soul as 1 kicked the rats away, “If in the glare of many 
miners' lamps and the opposition of the digger's pick and 
shovel, mine rats have been known to fight and die for bread, 
O, God! what will not the combined forces about me do for 
blood!" I shudder now to think what desperate act I might 
have committed to escape my foes had I been armed. But 
just then the crash of falling stone ceased. The air, now fill- 
ed with dust, still passed by me. The rats, though aggress- 
ive, and all about me, grinding out that pecular sound heard 
in mines where rats abound, did not as expected attack. 
Gradually I became more composed and thanked God 1 had 
not been provided with a revolver, for the thought came to 
me: I might yet be saved. O, I might yet escape! 

I was now leaning against the rib of coal, resting, so very 
weak I could hardly keep my feet. My limbs, scratched and 
bruised by the sagging roof stone, trembled under me, but 1 
dare not fall insensible among the fighting, noisy rats. It 
would mean death, a thousand deaths, attacked by their teeth, 
not the pleasant exit open to me had I a revolver, when there 
came to my nostrils and into my mouth a peculiar, pungent 
smell and sickening taste, thrown off by snakes, reminding 
me of rattlers I once saw behind screens in a museum at Saint 
Augustine, Florida. 

How very repulsive the Oder pervading that room was! 
Many rattlers supposed to have fallen down air shafts, or 
to have crawled through rock fissures at coal croppings and 
thence into the mines, had been fought and often killed in the 
mines, and work mules had died supposedly from the 
effects of their venomous sting. 

The breath of the rattler floated by me on the freshing air 
only to return and again taint the breath, showing his near 


LOST IN ABANDONED COAL WORKINGS. 53 

proximity to me. And then, Oh, God! his hiss and his rattle 
sounded all about me. 

I have never thought I swooned entirely away in that 
awful crisis, for there came to my mind, if indeed my 
condition would warrant the assertion that 1 still retained my 
powers of mind, the thoughts: “How very lonesome the 
monarch of hell, the king of Milton's creation must have 
been, when after being spewed from out the distended belly 
of creation through its wide opened door, from whence 
cometh all mankind, be they devils or angels; all unwashed, 
he bolted headlong, an unclean thing, alone on fetid pinions 
doomed -to flit through trackless space, fated to rush with 
meteoric speed under an uncharted firmament, impervious to 
light of heaven from above, his unclean wings doomed to 
float in an eternity of darkness down eons of time, hoping, 
hoping for just one ray of light, displacing as he flew head- 
long the pitchy darkness the fruitful womb of a lost world 
had belched him into, only to close up again more of a solid 
than before he passed along, thus cutting off his retreat, fated 
to flit on and on with no companion, no guide but fate, ever 
consumed by hell's inconsumable thirst for revenge! revenge! 
revenge! to be meted as best he might upon the simple adher- 
ents, the children of a God where ere any of God's children 
might by any chance be found, all because his father, God, 
jealous of his heir, as the rich are said ever to be, had to per- 
petuate his own power, and hoping to suppress insurrection 
banished him and his loyal following from out the boundaries 
of their native land, heaven, their birthright, thus compelling 
his majesty, Satan, to set up a kingdom, as reign he would, 
if not in heaven, which because of his lineage his armed hosts 
ever claimed his right to reside in, then in hell, his heavenly 
rights being by superior force denied him." 

What an awful load of responsibility rested on that lost 
soul of the poet's creation; what the consequences to follow 
should he fail to find a way out of hell for his people into 
some country they might capture from his own father's chil- 


54 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


dren. Then, alas, the hosts awaiting his return to succor them 
in their lost estate might indeed trace with their finger-tips in 
the boiling metal, simmering in their molten lakes, the legend 
by earth’s poets set up for them. “Ye who enter here leave 
hope behind.” 

Always now when the light of day gives place to the gloom 
of night listening, 1 hear that wild voice, that cry of the lost 
one, shrieking through that old deserted mine, crying! Ha! 
Ha! Satan! Thou ruler of hell! Thou terror of the living, 
thou palsying fear of the dying. Thou whose pinion tips 
scraped the arches of night through uncounted centuries of 
time hoping to discover one faint ray of light to guide thee to 
an Edan’s sunshine, it to blight, its light to extinguish, be- 
hold me, unlike thee in thy immeasurable flight, banished of 
thine own creator, forsaken of all, 1 am not alone! Thou art 
with me for the serpent crawls about me. I am sightless, but 
1 hear his hiss, his warning, unlike thee given of his approach, 
and the purring of the rats waiting their feast of blood. 
Alone! alone! no! no! 1 am not alone, 1 am not left like thee 
alone! 

As that frantic voice died away, there came to the man still 
leaning for support against the rib of coal, altogether incapa- 
ble of futher effort to save himself from the hungry hordes 
clustered about him, as if to further terrorize him, could such 
be possible, a sound, not that of falling stone crushed from 
stratas by sagging mountain side; not that of scurrying ro- 
dents, nor the rattle of the serpents accursed because his 
father wiled man’s mother to her fall, but a faint 
noise such as a living world of men make in their efforts for 
sustenance, and in the pursuit of improvment and pleasure in 
the business of life. 

The bruised ear at the coal rib’s side had often heard that 
sound. All miners know it well. It was the dull, heavy thud a 
mine cage makes in landing at the bottom after its rapid jour- 
ney from the sunlight and green leaves of the world’s surface. 


LOST IN ABANDONED COAL WORKINGS. 55 

after falling down, down, a damp, dark shaft to a pit's bottom 
on the way to the heart of earth. With the landing of that 
mine cage, whereaway, the limp prisoner guarded in a place 
all unknown excepting to his captors, the snakes and their 
allies, must have fallen prone and entirely helpless at last, 
without the aid of revolver shot, fallen to be devoured by the 
hurrying host about him, but ere they could determine which 
should make the final incision for blood, the serpent colony 
or the rodent horde, the gnash of tooth, or the deadly fang, 
the hiss, the purr, seemingly in lively contention as to the 
distribution of the spoils in their toils, only waiting their con- 
clusions, gave way to voices, human voices, crying: Found! 
found! Ho! ho! comrades, this way, found! found! 


CHAPTER XV. 

MEN UP, MEN ON, HOIST AWAY, OFTEN TO A GRAVE. 

HE carrying of a crushed, insensible body of a mine 
^ worker to a hoisting cage at the bottom of a shaft in 
deep mines and shallow, are matters of frequent occurrence 
enough to shock mining communities, and call the world's 
attention to the hazards of the business of mining. But its of 
such frequent occurrence that the finding of a poor breadwin- 
ner, perhaps crushed by a falling top, his delivery to the eager 
excites no great comment. A few days pass, the inci- 
dent is almost forgotten, the men hurry away with tools and 
dinner pails from the bottom to the workings, the long 
nights of suffering are all passed in some little hut where 
may be seen the faint gleam of patient watchers' candle on 
the mountain side the weary night long. The mineworkers 
contribute from their slim store to the support of the wound- 
ed man and his family until he recovers, or they lay him 
away in some little burying ground neath shady forest trees. 
But the sufferings are for the shattered form on the bed in 
the corner, and should death come to that cottage to count 
the fleeting sands as they disappear from his glass, the 
crushed mine-worker meets his last guest alone. 

In case of a mine accident the wounded or dead man's im- 
mediate neighbors working in his section of the mine, as 
soon a> possible come silently, carrying the body to the bot- 
tom. The loaded car on the cage is sent away. The return- 
ing empty is taken off, the bottomer now signals, ‘‘men up". 
The empty at the top is quickly taken from the cage standing 
on the shutes, and all is now clear and ready for the hoist. 
The top now signals the bottom: “All clear." The bottom 
56 


MEN UP, MEN ON, HOIST AWAY, OFTEN TO A GRAVE. 57 

signals the top : “ Men on.'’ The body is now carefully 
laid on the cage. The men who accompany it stand about it 
holding to the cross bar. The bottomer now gives the 
hoisting signal. The great hoisting drum on whicn the steel 
rope is wound starts very slow, and so continues to revolve, 
as watching the indicator before him the hoisting engineer 
sees exactly where the cage is at every instant of the journey 
from darkness to sunshine. The cage and its load is at the 
top. As it settles down on the shutes, the body is taken 
away, often to a heart-broken destitute family, often from 
thence to a grave. 

Lying in bed at a company boarding house on the moun- 
tain's side one day, not as yet recovered from brain fever 
following my exhumation from a possible tomb, the room 
saturated by the smell of boiling beef, a pit hand detailed to 
me how by the merest accident imaginable his gang who had 
been searching for me for many hours after following a 
rattlesnake into the deserted mine section hoping to overtake 
and kill it, losing it concluded not to go further into the old 
places, turned to retrace their steps with a view of escaping 
the snake themselves and of giving up the search for the lost. 

In fact the men had started on the back track through the 
fallen obstructions to their journey, when one stopped sud- 
denly, and placing his hand to his ear, said, “ Boys, what's 
that?" ‘^What's that?"* All now listened attentively, 
hearing the munching sound of the rats, their squeaks, and 
the hiss of a snake almost by their side, and too, a far-away 
cry : What's that ? What's that ? " The purring of the 

rats, the sickening stench of the serpent, and then they heard, 
that shriek, then all sounds ceased excepting that of the 
gathering hordes about them. 

Back they turned regardleas of all and every danger to 
themselves. On they went, never hearing that cry again, 
when, discouraged, hopeless, they stopped, and one happening 
to turn a corner standing there in the eternal night, found the 


58 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


body of a man lying against a heap of unfilled coal, a bevy of 
rats swarming all about it, and 1 was found ! 

It seems 1 was absent two days and three nights from the 
bottom of the hoisting shaft before found, as 1 was told, by 
the merest accident and the persistence of a rattlesnake ; 1 had 
imagined the time passed among the underground inhabitants 
only that number of hours. Since being put in possession of 
the facts as to time spent in my wanderings, and my helpless 
condition when found, 1 have wondered how long and how 
often were my swoons, and whose hand held the mine rats 
and their allies, the snakes, in leash. 


V 


CHAPTER XVI. 


MAJOR PROPOSES TO CHANGE PLAN OF 
CAMPAIGN. 

T hat second of time passed in reminiscent thought, in 
which 1 reviewed my mine experience, seeing it all as 
a flash light picture might be seen on a wall, instantaneously, 
had scarcely passed, leaving me where it found me, standing 
by comrade's side, when he, as if not pausing at all in his 
speech to me, so fast does the mind travel over accomplished 
events, went on to whisper in my ear as one would speak 
into an ear trumpet. 

“ Ha, ha, ha ! why you're scared ; you're shaking like an 
aspen leaf. Come, old man ; come, brace up. You haven't 
said a word now for full three-quarters of a minute unless it 
was when you said, ‘Ye who enter here leave hope behind.' 
Who was you speaking to? to yourself, of course. The 
words fit your condition, but it will be in order for us to obey 
the injunction and abandon our enterprise when we see the 
lines you quoted traced on the black wall about us, and not 
till then. In the meantime stop trembling. So far we have 
seen nothing, and if there have been any happenings at all, 
they have come out of the realm of imagination pure and 
simple. That's all the enemy we have so far met, and we 
are evidently his already, so why do you warn to surrender 
when you are already a captive to fear ? 

I have been chuckling quite under my breath ever since 
you discovered you have forgotten to fetch your pistol, not 
because 1 think you should not have it, for of course the 
fellow sleeping here, somewhere, is a proof the Johnnies are 
59 


60 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


near, but because I know they are scared out of their wits, as 
you are, at the mere prospect of meeting us. They are as 
badly scared as we can be, depend on that. Had we come 
right in with our mess lantern bnrning we could have taken 
the boys in, and gone away from here with our prisoners, 
never fearing a shot. Of course conducting the venture as 
we have done shows we are afraid in the first instance, and 
having started without a light it is a risky thing now to 
change tactics and strike a light. But as to the groans, 
screakings, knockings, and all that about us, they all spring 
from one common source. Some blasted nigger or Johnny 
Reb turned the water that comes down the mill race onto the 
old mill wheel, it turns round, often to stop, and then go 
ahead again. There are some old crooked, unoiled for a 
quarter of a century past shafting, remaining in this mill 
house, and a lot of wood wheels with wood cogs to grind and 
knock and groan. Why, what thing ever built by slave 
nigger mechanics as all country corn mills have been, for the 
whites were never known to work, wouldn’t in view of the 
mechanic’s history, groan, so there you are. It’s all accounted 
for. Now get up close and listen: 1 propose we light our 
candle, take in the confeds and go back to our blankets as 
soon as possible. Well, what’s the matter with a lit candle .J’ 
If the boys watching for us want to shoot, why, don’t you 
understand, they’ll fire at the light. If it’s held at arm’s 
length from the body they will shoot straight as they can at 
it, and are not at all likely to puncture anything but the 
candle, see 

So it was agreed in the lowest possible whisperings b etween 
us, to light the candle at once, I seeing comrade had deter- 
mined on the move and he seeming sure of the correctness of 
the proposition. Almost anything, I reasoned, was better 
than inaction and fossilization. The plan of the campaign as 
finally arranged, was : I was to hold the unlit candle out at 
arm’s length, stooping my body, or rather, which suited me 


MAJOR PROPOSES TO CHANGE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. 61 

better, drawing it in an opposite direction from that of the 
hand, the point of danger, just as far as I could do, two things 
difficult to do at the same time, of course, but I felt like 
doing the best possible in the way of getting away from the 
candle light. Major was to trace the extended arm out into 
the darkness, find the hand, strike a match while out there 
and apply its flame to the candle's wick. And just then if 
the light wasn't shot out we were to do what under the 
circumstances, and without further consultation might seem 
best. 

That I admit wasn't so very definite, but it was the best we 
could do, for we didn't know but the light and some fingers 
with it might be missing after the first volley. I don't think 
we thought any further along that line, as it was necessary 
we should keep steady nerves, but it was understood if the 
confederate shot missed both fingers and the light, and got in 
another miss why then, I was to have the next shot while 
Major stood ready to repel an advance, knife in hand, I 
having been careful to drop to the floor entirely below his 
sphere of action. 1 confess the plan of campaign didn't suit 
me. I suppose my prejudice grew out of my readings of 
duels fought to a finish in dark rooms, from whose awful 
confinement there was no escape, all windows being shuttered 
and all doors barred. 


CHAPTER XVII. 

DUELING IN THE DARK. ^TOOR JIM.^^ 

T he preparations for the fighting of a duel in pitchy 
darkness were something as follows: The combatants 
were blindfolded before entering the room where the battle 
was to come oflf; they were led into a room they knew not 
where. A room divested of all furniture and all hangings, 
double carpeted. The men were stripped to their buffs ex- 
cepting drawers and stockings, the latter lined with wool. 
Standing there blindfolded, almost naked, they shook hands, 
bade each other and their seconds farewell. They were then 
placed in opposite corners of the room. Long bladed knives 
were then produced by the second for the challenger. A 
knife was given to each combatant. Quickly the door was 
slammed shut. 

The duel in the dark I read about, and remembered as I 
stood there contemplating a shot at a lit candle held by my 
left hand, was fought to a finish. Both men died before the 
door was opened. 

As 1 contemplated the probabilities ahead of me I remem- 
bered I had also talked with one nicely carved duelist by the 
dirk knife, darkened-room-route to eternity. A fighter who 
for a wonder, survived disembowelment at the hand of an op- 
ponent. Who said to me as he lay propped up in a hospital 
bed, after long years had passed since the fight and the man 
now sick was growing old and feeble, though his wounds 
had long ago healed: '‘God forgive me for consenting to 
fight and kill poor Jim, the bravest man I ever saw. But he 
would fight, and fight me in a dark room, or if I refused, 
brand me a coward. We quarreled on meeting each other at 
62 


DUELING IN THE DARK. ''POOR JIM.'’ 63 

a lady friends' house. Jim was willing to die sooner than see 
me get her. 1, well it seems I was willing to die rather than 
see him have her as his wife. So we finally agreed, all un- 
beknown to the lady, to fight. Well, the seconds placed us 
in the room, we shook hands goodbye. The seconds gave us 
our knives, then the door was shut tight. With the darkness 
came to me a terror I shall never be stricken by again though 
I am required to look at the wet clay in the bottom of a grave 
dug to receive my dead body after that one look, at the tick 
of a watch, for 1 passed through it all. 

All I know about what happened in that dark room is, I 
thought a breath was on my cheek, I struck out at random, 
there was a gurggling sound, a groan, I knew 1 had been 
struck down, that was all. ! am told that when they opened 
the door, after waiting to time the fight, it was found I had 
fallen where the seconds left me standing, my belly so gash- 
ed 1 was almost disemboweled, Jim was dead, we lay welter- 
ing in each others blood. Jim's throat was cut across at a 
stroke as with a razor. He had crossed from his corner. I 
had felt the brave boy's breath on my cheek. God forgive 
me for killing poor Jim, my onetime friend. Why didn't I 
leave the country, and Mary would have married him.^^ He 
was a strong man, he might have lived happily all the past 
years that have been so miserable to me. Mary never would 
consent to marry me after killing poor Jim. I don't know if 
she is living now, but I do know, though I survived my in- 
juries by many years, I am dying now " 

1 must confess that my recollections of the story of Jim's 
death by the hands of an oldtime friend, his rival for Mary's 
hand, and Major's plans for the coming fight, about complet- 
ed the refrigeratian of my anatomy about to be exposed to a 
gun shot or a knife thrust, one. Still I remained on the fire- 
ing line. There was nothing else for me to do but stay. All 
that's required of a man on a firing line is to stay. If a fel- 
low is so fixed he is compelled by file closers and circum- 
stances that he stays, and can find cartridges as he needs them. 


64 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


the muzzle of his gun, his ramrod, and the old thing’s trigger, 
and can keep his gun pointing towards the enemy, why he’s 
all right. Well, that was what 1 tried hard as 1 could to do, 
1 don’t know how near Major’s consistency approached that 
of a midwinter’s day icicle, for no mortal eye could see him 
in that pit of night, but as a clammy hand went over my 
face, doubtless his own, seeking to know if I was still by his 
side, just then a new sensation found room to thrill my spinal 
column along, occasioned by the thought, “What if Major, 
losing me and failing to find me supposing me strayed or cap- 
tured, in self defense should draw his knife and procede to cut 
a swath his arm’s length about him unwittinly picking me up 
on its point, as he moved,’’ and before 1 could recover from 
the nervous shock of the thought of a knife slash, the voice 
beside me went on to say: 




CHAPTER XVIII. 

PLAN OF CAMPAIGN IN PRACTICE. 

N OW stretch your left arm as far out as you can. I did 
so, fully expecting if it failed to drop off from my 
shoulder, my fingers would punch up against a waiting enemy 
out there at guard like myself, and the next thing to claim 
my attention would be cold steel. But out my hand went 
heavy as it was and to my relief without discovering any 
obstructions. Immediately a hand took hold of the out- 
stretched arm at the elbow. Major's voice the while saying, 
hold still. Out went the hand, until I felt the greasy candle 
slip in between my waiting fingers, its touch causing a thrill 
of acute pain to shoot down the arm and through the 
intervening body formation to my very toe tips. Then 
Major's lips again touched my ear and his own whispered 
voice said: “Tt's there; you have the candle, be steady 
now, and don't forget to shoot if you see the flash of a pistol 
to shoot at, for heaven's sake," said the whisper now grown 
hoarse and strange. Don't miss your man, else seeing our 
position by the light of the candle they will be on us in a 
moment." By that time the arm weighted by the candle 
was perceptibly drooping. Again a hand went out, out, I 
heard a grating, rasping sound. Major afterwards said it was 
a match coming in contact with his wet boot sole. There 
was a sizzling sound, a flash of fire, a sulphurous vapor 
seemed to circle me about as though I stood in the center of 
a dense cloud of it. The fumes filled my nose, my throat. 
I tried to hold Major's old Cavalry revolver in position for 
action soon as the candle was lit. I gagged and strangled. A 
voice said, ^‘Look out for yourself now." The sizzling 
65 


66 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


match traveled through the darkness to my fingers grasping 
the candle ; it was there. It went hurriedly from finger tip 
to finger tip, as if undecided which to light, then to the 
candle wick, where I think it stopped long enough to set it 
afire. My fingers and the candle were now aflame, seemed 
to me a column of fire shot upward to the great hewed joist, 
just above our heads, for an instant the wall of blackness 
about us which all along had seemed to me to be a solid, re- 
ceded. We were standing on the center of a brilliantly light- 
ed space, when I became fully aware my hand was being 
encased in burning tallow. The burning candle fell to the 
damp floor, there was a sputtering in the mold the smell 
of burning grease, and we were again in impenetrable gloom. 

I must with the falling of the light, have immediately 
dropped onto the floor myself perhaps to recover the candle, 
more probable to escape expected shots our folly in lighting 
the match had exposed us to. Whatever the cause, my 
burned hand searching about on the wet and mold-grown 
floor boards went over a human face, or a cast of one done in 
ice, so cold was it. So horrified was I, I arose quickly to my 
feet thinking Major had fallen under the aim of our enemy, 
by a shot I had not noticed because of my burned hand. But 
to the contrary. Major was standing on guard close by my 
side, patiently waiting for me to find the lost candle. 

To reassure myself as to the existence of the ice cold face 
on the floor, I again kneeled and groped about, at once 
discovering, as before, a pinched m.old-bristling, slimy fore- 
head, the sharp nose and hollow cheeks, I thought of the 
dead. A corpse lay stretched at our feet. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

CAMPAIGN RESULT. A HASTY EXIT. 


I QUICKLY arose from the find, and in doing so almost 
upset the Major, who was still patiently waiting for the 
lost candle to be handed him. Soon as he was again settled 
on his feet I put my arms about my good friend's neck. I 
was about to tell him of the cold, sharp face there at. our fe^t 
within touching distance, a dead face almost entirely over- 
grown by a forest of some fungus growth, standing like 
great spikes having their roots in the dead flesh. 

Just then 1 was aware that some fluffy thing went rolling 
over my feet. I could feel its welts piling up about my boot 
legs. Remembering my vigorous kicks among mine rats in 
the old mine workings, I at once kicked out feeling the leg 
weighted as with lead. At that instant, much to my amaze- 
ment, Major lit his last match, having lost one in the attempt 
to do so. While the match was hesitating between a faint 
effort to give out some light and its splutter and fizzle efforts 
to lapse into keeping with surrounding darkness, glancing to 
my feet 1 saw by its aid the wide-opened, cotton-lined 
mouth, the flashing tongue and burning eyes, the distended 
throat and fast weaving head of an angry snake. While the 
match continued to give out its fitful light, the snake uncoiled 
his length from about my bootleg, and piling one greenish 
fold upon another fold, as one might coil a rope into a 
pyramid, it rose up, up, until on the very apex of the cone 
thus formed was his flattened head, the darting tongue of a 
moccasin snake. Scared.^ I hadn’t time to be scared. I 
was hurled backward by some irresistible force, falling to a 
floor and on down an abrupt declivity, down to its bottom, 
and breathing the fresh air, was conscious I was lying outside 
the door or other place I had crawled in on our advance. 

Breathing the fresh night air, and, still true to his colors, 
though we had retreated. Major stood beside me. When, 
without a word of explanation, we went immediately to our 
smoldering campfire, under the tall sycamore trees by the 
side of the old millrace. 


67 


CHAPTER XX. 

BY THE SMOLDERING FIRE UNDER THE 
SYCAMORE TREES. 

T O say that we were sorely perplexed and disappointed 
because of the very unsatisfactory outcome of our night 
campaign and the final inglorious retreat would scarcely give 
the situation. I might rather say, not knowing how I came 
to be hurled through space to a landing on the ground out- 
side the building, knowing it was not to be credited to my 
own ability to navigate the air, 1 was simply dumbfounded. 

We collected the live coals about the huge back log our fire 
had been started against, laid on a top rail lying there for the 
cook to start his morning fire with, lit our pipes and resumed 
our seats among the friendly roots of the sycamores and 
smoked. After some time, having rediscovered our lost 
powers of speech as we smoked, step by step as it were we 
traversed the dark route we had gone over as far as we could 
find any impressions left of it on our minds, admittedly, pro- 
bably inacurate because of the limited use of our senses. 
Finally coming to the last act, the exit we made from the un- 
lit stage, when Major, shudderingly told me, he himself feel- 
ing the snake about his feet, struck the match, and finding a 
snake coiling its folds higher and higher in our immediate 
front, and that 1 was about to be stung, he jerked me violent- 
ly barkwards as he now remembered, but at the time he did 
not know whither, but happily as proved, we both went 
tumbling out of the old mill’s door, of whose location we 
could not possibly have had any knowledge. 

We were seated at our campfire enjoying the sweet night 
air, black and portentious as were the lowering heavens above 
68 


BY THE SMOLDERING FIRE UNDER THE SYCAMORE TREES. 69 
our camping place. Only that we knew we were by the 
side of one of the prettiest of Kentucky's many streams 
skirted with cedar trees, flowing at the base of mighty lime- 
stone cliffs, past a lovely old meadow and orchard homestead 
scene, after what we had experienced since listening to the 
insane woman, we might have imagined, had we been so 
foolish as to indulge imagination, that we had camped in the 
midst of an aggregation of the uncanny, a place set apart 
where everything found to be going wrong in the reptile 
family and among men could be dumped out of sight in the 
noisome blackness engulfing an old watermill. For it seemed 
that, go where we would about that camping place, we were 
doomed to run into, or up against, the sorrowful or the 
horrible. But, we had been on the search for facts, whatever 
they might be, whether grewsome or otherwise, and after 
smoking, we were not disposed to indulge in any imagina- 
tions that might present themselves based on our inability to 
see what the surroundings in the old rookery we had visited 
really were. We had gone in search of adventure and facts, 
and had partly found what we went after. We had returned 
safely, we knew that much. We also knew we had seen 
nothing but a snake ; no other fact had presented itself. And 
as 1 have said, snakes may be found in old mine workings 
among rats, and other vermin. One may find lizards, owls, 
toads and other unclean living things in mountain caverns far 
away among the rocks, so why not in mine workings where 
the vein of ore or fuel is followed by workmen to the crop- 
pings. So, why not expect to find and disturb the dreams 
of a great sluggard such as a moccasin, cotton mouth snake, 
in an old-time, long- deserted grist mill standing by the 
side of the warm flowing waters of the south land. Why 
of course it might be expected, and we had done so, that 
was all. 

Come to think about our hasty good-byes to the descend- 
ant of the invader of our great- great-grandmother's heritage, 
the snake, that so successfully tempted Eve in her own sweet 


70 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


home while Adam was away for a brief moment, while 
heartily wishing some good neighbor’s hand had snatched 
mother Eve away from the serpent in time to have saved her 
descendants from the adverse effects of the law of entail. 
We were now able to see we had not at any time been six 
measured feet inside the room from which our final exit had 
been so quickly and unceremoniously accomplished. Facts 
were, we had thought, if we thought of the matter at all, that 
we had penetrated to the very center of the mysterious old 
thing when we had only to take two steps backwards to fall 
out the door onto the ground. With the night air stirring 
the sycamore leaves above our heads, returned to us at least 
such reasoning powers as we had on starting on our mill 
venture, by the use of which, now that Major was well away 
from the ruin, he was fully able to set aside as beneath his 
notice all and every happening, he called them, we had been 
blind witnesses of, accounting for them all as results of 
natural causes. “For,” said Major, “as there must be an 
adequate cause for every effect, attributing occurrences to 
what for a better name is called the supernatural, some power 
over and beyond the natural, is, to say the least, speculation. 
If the poor woman on the hill is insane, far as we know, 
there’s a natural cause for that effect. Same with the snake, 
he was in his own preserves and we invaded them. Come 
to think, his snakeship was the only happening ; after him 
there was nothing but the fact th?t we could not see. Of 
course we expected to meet the Johnnies, I believe now they 
are there. Why didn’t they shoot at us or our light ? Well, 
they dare not do so. Suppose tliey had done so, surrounded 
as they are, by the ouu iretching camps of our iroop , how 
could they hope to escape? Did you ever ihink of that? 
I’ll bet a gallon of water from this old millrace, 1 can light 
your mess lantern, go into that door you w?' in so much 
hurry to tumble out of, merely because 1 put my hand on 
your shoulder, walk over the old mill floors, roust the hiding 


BY THE SMOLDERING FIRE UNDER THE SYCAMORE TREES. 71 


rebs out, and wave the light from one of the sashless window 
openings in the gable, and never miss a step in the grand 
march!’' 

So my comrade reasoned. But while I had talked of 
other occurrences 1 had not told him of the face I had dis- 
covered in there on the floor, and so far he seemed to have 
forgotten the obstruction our feet struck, and also if he knew 
of the incident at all, he had forgotten the reaching of itiy 
hands beyond the obstruction before rising to our feet in the 
first instance. All that was overlooked by him, and I had 
been silent as to it. I was on the point of telling him of the 
find when the snake occupied so much of our attention. 
Since then events had so crowded each other, I had not had 
opportunity to do so, so had not told him about the mdld- 
bristling face. 

To be just truthful in this narrative, 1, while smoking at 
the failing campfire, while Major was talking, had carefully 
gone over the painful experience of my burned hand, finding 
that face, and had about concluded that some time, in day- 
light, in the future, I would tell my friend what my sense of 
touch had found, knowing if he did not credit the story he 
would thank me for retaining so horrid a secret, at least. 

1 was still sitting by comrade’s side thinking the incidents 
of my find over and listening to the sound of falling waters 
at the old milldam wishing they might wash all remembrance 
of that bony, clammy face away, when there came to me the 
following reflections : You can’t say anything to the ^Majof 
that will convince him for a moment there is the body of a 
dead man lying in there on that floor ; you did not see it 
yourself, you know; you only think your badly singed 
fingers traced the outlines of a face that you say yourself was 
fairly bristling with huge rough spikes of mold, that’s all. 
Why, think a moment ; how can so sore and sensitive a hand 
as you now have with nothing to put on it, because you 
don’t care to wake the surgeon to dress it for fear of his 


72 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


questions, be relied on, when you remember it came in 
contact with a stiff growth of noisome mold your eyes could 
not see at all. But suppose the fingers did run up against a 
face imbeded in the moldy growth, what reason have you to 
think it belonged to the dead majority? If it was the face of 
a soldier billeting himself on the millhouse for a nighf s sleep, 
which was likely to be the case, and perhaps quite drunk by 
the time he lay down; the fellow might be fit for a medical 
student's stiff, and yet only be full; which again, is not at all 
improbable, as homemade whiskey, apple jack, and peach 
brandy, is as plenty here in Kentucky as is milk, and a good 
deal easier for the boys to get, as there's more profit in the 
selling of it to them as they go foraging around. So the 
probabilities are the man was a dead drunk, in that case, of 
course after lying there for hours in the damp his hair would 
be matted and his face wet with slime, and yet all the time, 
your dead man be very much alive indeed for all that. Then 
as to that snake, well, he was a lusty fellow ! But since the 
reported invasion of the garden of delight by the enemy of 
the gods and the planting of the thorn in the rose, snakes 
have appeared to man, and even to the best of women, in all 
kinds of unexpected places. They even pose as men and 
women, sometimes, and a little following of their devious 
courses in actual life discloses their presence. The husband- 
man's plow often turns up nests of writhing snakes from out 
the rich mold of mother earth. So pray, why not find a 
snake in an old deserted place like the one you visited? 

“If imagination is what you delight in, imagine the ser- 
pent you saw to be the individual snake accursed of the gods 
as being that same old receptacle of the evil spirit which, 
spite of the guardian angel's watch and ward, destroyed an 
eden on earth; and so imagining, go back to its lair and 
destroy it, as the hand that wrote the legend of the serpent's 
appeal to Eve might have done, had the mortal brain that 
conceived it had any adequate conception of the appalling 


BY THE SMOLDERING FIRE UNDER THE SYCAMORE TREES. 73 

effects to follow that teaching on the minds of the children of 
men.'’ 

By this course of reasoning 1 arrived at the conclusion, 
that after all had been said that was possible in the premises, 
1 may have only discovered a case of dead drunk on the part 
of the supposed corpse, and begun to suspicion that torpid- 
ness of powers was not altogether confined to the fellow 
lying there on the floor; but the fact that I was in continuous 
fear of an enemy's shot or knife thrust, may have had some- 
thing to do with my hasty conclusions as to the man being 
dead. So, in order that I might clear up the mystery, I now 
found desirable to explain away, and hoping to be able to do 
‘so by a little further investigation, I determined to go with 
comrade again just inside the old mill door, run a light over 
the floor, scare the drunken soldier out of his damp bed, or, 
which I now saw I had no adequate reason to expect, redis- 
cover the dead, which of course would be no business of 
mine except to report the finding of it to commanding officers 
after returning to camp. My scheme hastily thought out was 
to have Major precede my entrance into the building, not 
that he might be shot at first, but that he might himself 
seemingly discover the body, when I would immediately 
acquaint him with the fact of my previously finding it by 
sense of touch. So it was agreed, we would go back to the 
darkness in the old water mill. 

We strapped two revolvers each about our bodies, so that 
should one be dropped, another would be at hand, we care- 
fully inspected them. We provided for each a stout, sharp 
knife, such as one might, if cornered, use, and it made my 
blood congeal to think of the probability, the thought of 
“poor Jim's" death almost determining me to refuse to go 
at all, but it did not. We covered my mess lantern with 
rubber cut from the lower edge of my tent fly, which was a 
foolish thing to do, for within two days after that night I 
threw the fly away to get rid of the reminder, which was 


74 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


another foolish thing to do, for the memory of the darkened 
lantern is with me still. 

We cut a circle through the rubber covering of the lantern 
as large as a silver quarter dollar, leaving the piece nearly 
cut out hang by a strip of the material, thus as we 
thought, giving us ready control of the light, to darken or 
enlarge it, as the exigencies of the venture might require. 
This feature we demonstrated to our satisfaction on the side 
of our blue mess wagonbed. So, after another tin of coffee, 
found in the black boiler sitting in the ashes, another smoke, 
and this time being amply supplied with matches, we set fire 
to the lantern’s wick, opened the guarding flap partially, and 
following a little disk of light going along on the ground at 
our feet, we were off through the squads of sleeping soldiers 
lying on the ground between our position and the objective 
we had in view, the old watermill door. 


CHAPTFR XXI. 

AGAIN TEMPTING FATE. 

A rriving at the great shadow that had attracted our 
attention in the first instance, and which proved to be 
an old mill building inviting further acquaintance, we of 
course expected to clamber readily and too, without any 
opposition into the mill, aided by our disk of light, but look 
where we would we could find no open door, though it was 
our understanding we had tumbled unceremoniously out of 
one. The great wrought iron hinges spiked to what we 
thought a door were there, for we traversed them from end 
to end with our dot of light, but the door, if a door, was 
shut as close as if sealed by a mechanic's skillful hand. We 
felt sure we stood at the place of our hurried exit, but if so, 
the fastenings that held it and the hand that closed it after 
our going, were inside of it, and spite of ourselves or anything 
we could do we were at their mercy. 

In the years after that night, while Major and I were 
brigaded as comrades, and during the years following 
Burnside’s advance oh Knoxville, Tennessee, in which we 
were engaged in fieldwork, running lines of survey for pro- 
posed railoads, we often reviewed the incidents of that night, 
first one telling the whole story of that camping place at con- 
venient times, then the other would retell the story to his 
friend when they were entirely alone, as I have told it here, 
and as often as we did so and halted in memory in front of 
that door, we have agreed, we would have returned immedi- 
ately to our camp and beds, though the matter wasn’t 
mentioned by either at the time, but for the irresistible lead- 
ings of what for a better understanding of his relations to 
75 


76 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


what may be in the unseen, man calls fate. The Fates would 
not have it so, happily, as doubtless my reader will agree 
with Major and 1, after reading the story of the Old Water 
Mill. 

We were fated to enter that noisome place again, and then 
after our supposed great risk of bodily harm, and positive 
discomfort, to wait for the years to trail their slow length 
along before we could be finally given the answer to the 
question asked that impelled us on, ‘‘What is the secret 
hidden away in the old watermill?'' 

By the closed door, fastened on the inside, we were given 
to understand, as if the oak boards and great wrought iron 
hinges could speak, that we had been seen by persons inside 
the building who had fortified their position against our pos- 
sible return, by the closing of the door. Thus, the presence 
of the confederate soldiers was settled in our minds beyond 
the possibility of doubt, and the peril of our surroundings 
made plain to us. As for myself, I was still guarding my 
ghastly secret, the fact of the dead inside the building, and 
only desirous of merely entering the mill door to have Major 
to look at the dead face, or the drunk, when I would return 
to my bed. 

Finally, we found we had made an utter failure of our 
attempt to pry the mill door open with our knives, and had 
given up the effort, when Major, in sheer desperation, with 
never a thought that a noise as of broken boards would 
alarm not only the men within the old building, but also 
many guards in the camps about it, feeling at his feet a 
section of old timber he had been stumbling over for some 
time, with great effort, apparently, picked it up, and in a loud 
whisper cried out to me, “ Look out for yourself, stand 
clear!" hurled the ponderous object, (he often since has 
declared to have been light as any punk in his grasp) hurled 
it away into the night, with all power his strong arms could 
command. It must have traveled with the velocity of a 


AGAIN TEMPTING FATE. 


77 


projectile thrown by some ancient catapult against City 
wall besieged. 

There was the report as of a distant gun, then the rushing 
sound of approaching projectile, its frightful wail as it passed 
us by. 1 arose, and standing on my tip-toes, awaited the 
concussion to follow its striking the door, but it never came. 
There was neither noise nor disturbance of the air. Instead, 
the silence following was most profound, as much so as if 
clearing the limits of the earth's atmosphere the projectile 
had gone on into limitless space. On examining the door we 
found a great ragged rent through which the flying missive 
had passed, and were at once assailed by a torrent of cold air 
from the beyond of it. It rushed out with such force as to 
almost carry us off our feet, do what we would. We were 
so chilled our teeth chattered together, our hair bristled on 
our frozen scalps, and then our mouths, our nostrils, were 
filled by a nauseating stench. Only for the iced air accom- 
panying the smells, the sickness that attacked us would have 
made it impossible to have proceeded further, but we soon 
recovered from the death-like sickness, the putrid breath 
ceased, and in its stead, as if inviting us to pleasanter scenes 
and surroundings, there came to us the sweetest taste of 
purest mountain air ladened with trace of pine and cedar 
breath moistened by spray of wreaths, vails and columns of 
falling mountain waters, such as the traveler by steamboat 
from Portland, Oregon, to the Falls may see, as the waters 
fall down the Cascade Mountains’ sides into the Columbian 
River's rushing flood at their base. The multitude of sounds 
that had so disturbed us during each moment passed near the 
old mill we were now about to enter again, stopped, all was 
still ; the wabbling waterwheel had stopped, the grinding of 
the wood cog-wheels, the groans of the tortured shafting 
ceased. A furtive glance at the gaping opening in the boards 
before us, suggested, 1 remember thinking. ‘‘As restful is 
all here as is the unlit stone shelf of a dead king’s grand 


78 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


mausoleum on which the wasting remains of a once monarch 
among men, lies, forgotten of his once loves, unfeared now 
by his one-time rivals. His earth crown rusted and found 
unfit to wear in heaven, still circling a fleshless skull, its 
glitter departed, its significance gone. Earth's brief greatness 
succeeded by an eternity of oblivion granted by the king of 
kings; which to a skull emptied of brains, the seat of feeling 
is rest, unbroken rest. As silent to our acute hearing were 
our surroundings as is the ear of unburied corpse of a once 
wandering seeker after gold, wasting away in some faraway 
western mountain nook, within hearing by living ears of the 
steel girds on the giddy grades of some great transportation 
line, the concept of some once living brain,whose outstretched 
arms of steel bind the mighty oceans of the east and the^west 
of this hemisphere, and the valleys and mountains inter- 
vening, together, never to be separated politically while the 
morning's sun shall rise ; as silent as is the omnivorous worm 
that crunches its way about the festering heart core of him 
lying there. For whom fond hearts still beat, love, as they 
pulse on, on, waiting for the step on the walk, that comes 
not, from that last lone camping place, where the wanderer 
had, for his loved one's sake, hoped, vainly hoped to find 
gold, to find the color of gold, while the world's travel in 
palace cars passes unwittingly by, shall ever pass by. 

Being very desirous of solving the mystery 1 knew to be 
just ahead of us, is the man dead or alive, 1 now gave Major 
the bull's eye light and urged him to go forward as I had 
planned to do, so that he might come first in contact, appar- 
ently, with the body be it alive or dead, in there on the floor. 
Major yielded readily to my suggestion to go forward, and 
crawled at once into the opening in the riven door, 1 waiting 
with great interest for some indication that he had found the 
dead, or the drunk, on the floor. But 1 waited in vain, not 
a sound from within did comrade send out to me, but on the 
contrary, he, after some time, 1 thought it an age, perhaps it 


AGAIN TEMPTING FATE 


79 

was only a minute, came backing leisurely out the way he 
had gone in, saying on his arrival out, ‘'Well, how long 
would you have me wait in there on that wet floor on hands 
and knees for you to follow me ? Why didn't you come ? '' 
That was about all he said, though 1 must fail to convey to 
you his fault finding tone of voice ; evidently he was greatly 
annoyed because of my failure to support his advance. It 
was evident he had seen nothing of interest. My plans of 
campaign had failed when submitted to the test of execution. 

I should have been at the front myself, knowing what was to 
be done, that was all. The body was surely in there, and I 
would take the lead immediately. 

I now took the bullseye light from Major's hand, and 
without further ado pushed it through the opened space, fol- 
lowing it closely with my body, thus cutting off Major's 
ability to see what I was doing. Then thrusting the light 
well out in front of me, there, lying on the floor, quite over- 
grown by the rank mold, and bristling with a frowsy fungoid 
growth, was a blood-stained face, a thin slimy face, the face 
my burned fingers had discovered, evidently, though they had 
failed to discover the blood clots. Was I horrified ? Well ! 
1 was transfixed with horror, and, like the mold, as if grown 
to that slippy floor. Looking with all the powers of vision I 
possessed, that dead face now became the very center of my 
disc of light, as seen in the perspective along walls of black- 
ness, a bruised, rat-gnawn, bloody face. 1 suppose my 
intention was to reassure myself that I was really looking at 
a face of the dead, for, frightened, as I was, I put forth my 
hand to grasp the emaciated human wreck, when eluding my 
grasp, and as if receding, the glazed eyes seemed to take fire, 
and to literally glare at me as if from the bottom of an exca- 
vation, sunk as an ever-narrowing cylinder into the solid 
blackness. That gaze pierced me through and through 
again ; it was simply paralyzing ! 

When Major not being able to see what I was doing, and 
failing to induce any reply from me as to what I saw, again 


80 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


forcibly assisted me in a flight from the mill floor, which 
being accomplished, he seized the light and without saying by 
your permission, followed its leadings into the opening as 1 
had done before him, when having leisurely surveyed the 
interior as far as he could see it, he withdrew himself and the 
light, and in a very indifferent way said, '‘The old wreck, 
beside the hidden confederates in there contains nothing at 
all, possibly, but that one snake and its rat colony, unless 
they both, like us, have been scared away beyond the scope 
of our dark lantern.'' 

The incident resulted in my telling Major in sheer self 
defense, all 1 had formerly discovered by sense of feeling, 
and offering the facts as my eyes had just seen them, but he 
would have nothing of it, declaring it all a physical impossi- 
bility, an illusion, because there could be nothing existent 
beyond the natural, pertaining to what we called life. When 
in the face of my protests that 1 had had enough of the 
venture, and that wc must move before daylight, as General 
Pegram was on our immediate front. Major, without another 
word, started to lead the way by crawling through the gap in 
the door, and as soon as his feet had left my touch, as I kept 
close tab on him, I heard him say, speaking so loud anyone 
in the building must have heard him, though I tailed to think 
of it at the time : 

" Here, you get up ! What are you doing here ? Come, 
now, get up and go to your regiment ; get up, I say ! It's 
strange you fellows will get on the outside of all the whiskey 
that comes into your company ! " 

By the time he was through speaking to the man Ijnng on 
the floor, I was beside him craning my neck over his shoulder 
as he flashed the light about, but neither he nor I could dis- 
cover aught but the slimy overgrown floor. There was 
nothing to be seen to show that anyone had been there for 
years or ever, so far as appearances went, though 1 knew 
better, as did Major, for very excitedly he said, "Why, that's 


AGAIN TEMPTING FATE. 


81 


queer ! You heard me talking to a man, didn't you ? Why, 
he lay right there while I ordered him to his command ! 
drunk ! of course ! and looked as though the rats had been 
gnawing at his face all night. Of course it was a live man ; 
he wasn't even dead drunk, for he embraced the opportunity 
offered by your coming, when my attention was attracted by 
your leaning on me to look over my shoulder, to get away, 
and so he has gone." 

As a further proof that he was right in his declarations that 
he too had seen a person lying on the floor, stooping, he very 
carefully run the light's point about, at last finding the shape 
of a human form crushed into the rank growth on the 
boards, but overlooked by us before. 

Having crawled into the room myself and plainly seen the 
bloody overgrown face, iVlajor also having found the fellow, 
it was now evident the soldier had decamped at my coming 
after receiving Major's orders. Thus all thought of the 
occult was dismissed from my mind, and now fully accepting 
the theory of the drunken soldier, and satisfied I had not 
found a corpse, but had drawn on imagination, was ready to 
go forward that the enterprise might be brought to a close, 
and the confederates captured. 

Accordingly, without turning on a full light, we carefully 
surveyed our position, all the time keeping our point of light 
as small as possible for it to be of any use to us. Small as 
was the light we carefully held it at arm's length, so that 
should it be shot out our own lamps of life might perchance 
be left burning. A little cautious casting about showed we 
were standing beside great rents in a floor almost rotted and 
decayed into shreds. There were long wide chasms crossed 
only by huge hewn joists and below them all flowed rushing 
waters among the rock foundations. We had stopped walk- 
ing just at the right spot on the sinking floor, for another for- 
ward step taken, would have plunged us into the torrent over 
which the grinding floor of the mill originally had been built. 


82 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


Those hewn logs stretching away into the night above the 
tumbling waters, were suspension bridges offering to lead us 
on our way, we could not know where. A little inspection 
of the crossing logs showed plainly among the moldy growths 
thereon, evidences of recent use perhaps by retreating feet, 
possibly those of our drunken find, perhaps the course of the 
serpent which has disputed our coming. 

We were hesitating about trusting ourselves on any of the 
rotting joist, for the mere pressure of a foot was seen to dis- 
lodge great slabs from their slimy surface, and had begun to 
cast about for some other means of advance, nor to say 
escape, when the whole structure visibly sagged under our 
weight, and just there at our right, our light happening to 
have been cast that way, we saw a great stone pillar disappear 
from its place under a floor-log into the whelming flood. 
Then the log sagged further, falling quickly out of sight in- 
to the inky black waters. Just then we were alarmed by a 
crackling sound behind us followed by a perceptible tremor 
of the entire floor, indicating the floor we had come over was 
sinking. Seeing we must get away from where we were, and 
that we could not venture to retrace our steps for fear of be- 
ing dumped into the waters below with the fall of the floor, 
we again started forward, Major now holding the point of 
light well out to his right as a balance, his left arm being ex- 
tended in the opposite direction for that same pursose, he 
tenderly tried the stability of the crossing log down there with 
a foot, then hesitatingly stepped out in the direction the log 
should take if indeed it was continuous in length, and finding 
it was though his foundation settled visibly beneath his weight, 
he moved forward his other foot to the heel of that in ad- 
vance, mine following close, my breast pressing the back in 
the lead, my left hand the shoulder in its front, my knee fol- 
lowing close the bend of a leg while just under the right ear 
in my front, muzzle towards the advance, rested the old cav- 
alry revolver. Four legs moved together in pairs as obedient- 
ly as if attached to the same body, at the instant of time two 


AGAIN TEMPTING FATE. 83 

feet pressed the bending timber the other two were swinging 
somewhere out in space above the chasmed waters. 

So we moved on, much perhaps as any ropewalker might 
do as, with step of bird he touched the very center of some 
wire stretched far above a yawning abyss gaping beneath 
his airy flight. Once as the combined foot tread daintily 
pressed something down in the dark we could not know 
what, only hoping it was the bridge we had thought we were 
starting to cross, while the detached feet were somewhere out 
on their course in the night, the surface of our foot rest slip- 
ped from under our tread, the feet were sinking to one side, 
they were slipping off the rotten edge of the log, they were 
going with a portion of its decayed surface. We were falling! 
we were falling! When as the decayed wood had almost 
slipped from under us, and our feet with it, and we were 
toppling to a fall, heaven only knew where, the two feet 
dangling out over the precipice, glided on ahead of the slip- 
ping feet, they rested on firmer foundation, and we had cross- 
ed to the far side of the chasm. 1 have never been satisfied 
as to the length of the bridge crossed over, 1 am still in doubt 
if the log was six feet long from edge of chasm to its further 
side, or sixteen feet long. Readers in considering the ques- 
tion will kindly take our surroundings into consideration, and 
determine the matter for themselves. The closing lines of 
my story will tell what the consequences attending a fall from 
that bridge into the waters below would probably have been. 

As soon as we had caught up with our lost breath, after 
our escape, a pair of trembling hands arranged our lantern's 
blind so it could be readily removed in case of quick action 
being demanded, and while that was being done we promised 
each other we would never attempt going out of the wreck 
the way we came in for it was evident we could not hope to 
retreat or retire that way. We had scarcely arrived at this 
conclusion, when from across the bridge we had come over 
there came to us, plain as we could hear, a long drawn groan. 


84 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


By this time 1 confess, by the constant pelting of grewsome 
events, and sights, I was a mere staligmite, incapable of any 
feelings of sympathy with any one in distress. So too was 
my comrade, and he, forgetting his surroundings, and the 
probable battle ahead perhaps to be fought with a knife in 
the dark, broke out in a torrent of denunciation of the drunk- 
en soldier who so succesfully eluded us as to get us over the 
dark waters before audibly anouncing his presence by means 
of an unearthly groan. 

A poet wrote, “Gods, could I but paint a dying groan!'' 
Had he been there with brush and colors and heard that groan 
he would not have cared to perpetuate the horrid thing by 
his art. The mere hearing, as we heard would have sufficed 
him. 

Comrade was so angry however thinking it a drunken 
man's groan, that at the risk of being discovered he yelled 
out, “Whose there?" and there came to us in reply his own 
words: “Whose there?" that was all. When a whisper at my 
ear, I thought it was my comrade's, said in quite a husky 
tone, “Seems to me you'r afraid! You'r scared! Still believe 
the face your burned hand found, and your eyes as you hon- 
estly believe saw lying among the excresences of damp and 
night was a real dead human face, smeared all over with 
clotted blood, don’t you? Ha, ha, ha! The boys when told 
this story will have many a laugh at your expense. Why, 
dead men never groan they are said to sleep the sleep which 
knows no wakings. They are as if their bodies had never 
been shaped from the clay they are being reduced to. But a 
drunken man, if not too drunk, might groan. Its simply 
absurd 1 tell you, to attribute anything seen, heard, or felt, to 
any so called supernatural cause. We have routed out all 
the spooks, now lets go for the Johnnies, leaving the dead 
drunk to groan." 


CHAPTFR XXII. 

DISCOVER FABULOUS WEALTH. 

T he shuffling as of many feet on the floor immediately 
above our head now claimed our attention, here at 
least was something tangible. The confederates were in the 
mill loft waiting our coming, to surrender to us doubtless, for 
of course, by that time they all knew we were there and in 
search of them. 

Again looking over our weapons and re-examining our 
shading apparatus on the lantern, we started forward, when 
we immediately found ourselves engulphed in spider webs. 
Great sheets of closely woven, double corded, hard twisted 
cable webs as we pressed our bodies through them encased us 
from head to foot, we were compelled to tear great holes 
through the silken fabrics that we might breathe and see, and 
to strip them off our hands in wads that we might feel. The 
silken threads released from their fastenings climbed up our 
nostrils, and into our ears and mouths, and presently spiders 
of all sizes, merely following their home-made thoroughfares, 
crept after them, or walked leisurely about our cheeks and 
around our necks, breaking through the silken venere which 
covered them, and in every instance where their horny feet 
cut through into the flesh, huge watery welts marked their 
progress. My cheeks, nose, my neck and ears, were soon 
hillocks of water blisters. 

What would I not have done in penance, had I been spared 
that experience. In trying to disengage ourselves from the 
spiderwebs, the cover slipped off the lantern, its full light at 
once illumed all about us, each silken cord of spider web un- 
der the influence of the light, became a thread of spun silver, 
85 


86 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


each knotted thread was a festoon of sparkling diamonds or 
other precious stones displayed against a black background. 
We seemed to be standing in one of earth’s treasure troves, as 
yet until our eyes beheld its wealth, undiscovered by man. A 
place where was gathered by some hand unseen earth’s choic- 
est gems, millions of purest crystals percolated through car- 
bonates forming the heart of the earth, were there, and ours 
for the taking. We were feasting our eyes, and gloating 
over our new found wealth of inexhaustable strands and 
sheets and piles of diamonds all about us, never by mortal 
man’s eyes seen before, when 1 was brought to my senses by 
another thrust, a hundred thrusts, from horned feet of bloat- 
ed spiders leisurely waddling their way along my cheek. I 
could feel my blood go bubbling, up, up towards my brain, 
there to eddy round, reminding me of water diamonds rising 
in meadow brooks, from great holes deep down in their 
grassy bottoms, the summer palaces of great, fat, gorgeously 
apparreld meadow frogs, thus disclosing by a foolish display 
of their strands of glittering beads their palatial retreats to 
the eager eyes of the truant school boy, the mortal enemy of 
the flitting snake feeder as well and the mother bird with a 
nest full of speckled eggs, as he goes loitering along the brook 
with iron weed rod in hand. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

AN INGLORIOUS ENDING OF A PERILOUS VENTURE. 

W E could not have consumed much time admiring the 
display about us. We must simply have taken it 
all in at a glance. We were not to be deceived into possess- 
ing ourselves of more of the silken threads and sheets of 
glittering silk than unavoidably adhered to our persons, and 
there was something awful in the numbers of spiders by 
which we had been assailed. So while I have consumed 
much space in noticing the circumstance of the treasures of 
diamonds found, we really had stopped but a moment con- 
templating them and then hastily brushing the webs aside and 
scraping the crawling spiders from our faces and necks, we 
moved on, now in the full glare of our lantern's light. 

We soon came to the limits of the mill grinding floor sunk- 
en and rotted away. Before us was the wreck of what was 
once a shed annex to the building. It, like the building we 
had come through, stood on stonepiers above the flowing 
waters of the stream. Its roof was gone save here and there 
a twisted rafter still in place with fragment of sheeting adher- 
ing. The floor on one side of the shed room, and at one of 
its ends, had parted company with the blance of the structure 
and had fallen down so that the lower edge of it was imbed- 
ded in the swirling water that flowed under the building. 
Where the floor timbers still maintained their connection with 
the structure's sills, over in the corner standing on one raiser, 
the other leg held high out over the sloping floor which sag- 
ging had left it without adequate support, was a stair without 
bannister rail. It was one of those great heavy oaken stair- 
ways found in grist mills in border slave states up which 
87 


88 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


negroes, in the good old times of slave labor before elevators 
were put in mills, carried all the grain to be ground. 
All this was taken in at a glance during which we for an in- 
stant were contemplating a rush up that crazy old stair in the 
very face of our hiding foe. 

It will be understood, the blind having fallen from the light, 
that we were standing in its broad glare, but as Major was at 
the time I have been considering holding the lantern up so as 
to be able critically to examine the stairs to the mill loft, the 
position of the light threw a shadow on the floor. It was 
when the light was shifted that we saw the water washing 
the base of the incline, literally alive with watersnakes. 
Everywhere we looked were wads, frills, convolutions, pyra- 
mids of white-mouthed moccasin snakes, whose sting was 
sure death, and they knew it, and darting lurid tongues from 
distended mouths, defied us to approach them. Many great 
brown and black -barred snakes hissed their defiance and spat 
their venom at us. 

Fastened to the floor’s submerged edge, long lines of scaly 
snakes floated away. A mere cursory glance took it all in. 
It was all photographed on our minds in the twinkle of one 
of the snake’s beady eyes. But if we did not stop long to 
look we were none the less horrified, as the snake horde 
started to glide up the floor incline. They came crawling at 
us from every place lit up. As we jumped across the falling 
floor for the stairs, hoping to escape by its means, every rep- 
tile opened his sluicegates of venom, emitting a pungent, 
sickening stream of fetid odor. I remember seeing the stairs 
above us a mass of weaving, darting heads and molten- 
tongued snakes leaping from above on the steps to the 
slanting floor below, falling with a thud, there was a splash 
in the creekwater among the snakes down at the foot of the 
inclined floor, a boiling of the waters as the monsters disap- 
peared in the flood, and with them went all knowledge as to 
where, or how far Major and 1 jumped, or how we got away 
from the foot of that stairway. Whether we went on 
upstairs and jumped to the ground from a window, or 
recrossed the broken mill floor, I know not, neither does my 
comrade of that wonderful undertaking. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 


THE BODY OF A MAN ON THE FLOOR. 
DEAD OR ALIVE. 

A fter we again found ourselves at our now burned-out 
campfire, under the sycamores, and had as far as 
possible for that time brushed the spiders and their webs 
remaining from our clothing and picked the crawlers out of 
our ears, and the silken threads from our nostrils, we 
solemnly pledged each to the other mutual silence as to the 
strange venture in the old water mill. 

At times as we assisted each other in the picking and 
brushing of the spiders away, we tried to laugh at the idea of 
there being hidden confeds in the mill, and the figure we must 
have cut in the many phases of our advance and retreats, but 
the laugh was a forced affair at best, the merriment fell flat, 
and was followed by a mutual shudder as our thoughts 
recurred to the bloody face, the groan, and the crushed 
fungus growth where a body, whether of drunken or dead 
man, we confessed to each other we knew not, once lay, 
when, astonishing as it may appear to the reader, 1 
bethought me of the fact we went into the old mill carrying 
a hooded light. 

Before I could speak of the tact, my comrade said, as 
though waking from a dream in which all earthly doings had 
been forgotten : ‘‘O, by the way, do you remember, we 
carried a bullseye light ? ” 

“ Remember it ? '' said I ; “ Why, of course we carried a 
lantern ! 

“ Why, yes,” said Major. “ How else could we have seen 
the rents in that rotten floor, or crossed the bridge among the 
89 


90 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


rats. Of course we had a light. The view of the snakes at 
the bottom of the slanting floor, and the gathering on the old 
time mill stairs proves that ! But where is it } 1 haven’t the 
remotest idea where we left it.” 

Major’s waking remarks exactly took in the very singular 
situation ; we could not conjecture where we left our light. 
As we thought it quite impossible for us to have escaped 
through the rookery the way we went in, without a light, 
the unanswered question was then, and is to this day, “ How 
did we esape.^” unless by passing the snakes on the stairs, 
dropping the light as we ran, and jumping out of an attic 
window, which we could no’t have done without detection and 
arrest by the sentries outside. 

Summing up the experiences of the night, there was but 
one thing we could be sure of : we had not been shot at. 

The last words spoken by my comrade as he was bidding 
me good-night, after looking at his watch and finding both 
of our trips into the old mill only consumed something more 
than two hours instead of a decade of time as we would have 
thought but for the evidence before us, was, “That was a 
foolhardy adventure at best, and all the more to be regretted 
because we left the body of a man on the floor dead or alive 
for our minds to recur to just as we saw it, for the remainder 
of our lives.” 


CHAPTER XXV. 

THE DELIGHTFUL BORDERS OF DREAMLAND. 

S CARCELY had my head touched my pillow and I had 
snuggled among the blankets in the straw trying to 
exclude from my hearing all the discordant sounds of the old 
water mill's deserted machinery and that of the falling waters 
of the milldam, hoping to sink to sleep, and thus to blot from 
memory's canvas every trace of pictured scene laid on while 
passing through the old mill, when, stumbling along still, I 
groped my way in pitchy night by the side of an old 
building, feeling along the rough boards at the tip ends of 
fingers smarting from burns, but, as though going in a circle, 
ever returning to an opening in the twisted board siding, 
when a lantern in full flame would by some unaccountable 
means find its way into my hand. 

Into the opening through the shivered boards would go the 
light, now a roaring stream of fire, my eager gaze keeping 
pace. A spot on a floor would be bathed in light, then as 
quickly shrunk to a small disk, and there, almost overgrown 
by mold, a blood -splotched face would appear, straightway 
my body would become a bundle of iced nerves, possessing 
no sense but that of sight. Again and again some rude hands 
would thrust me away from the opening, then other hands 
would hastily push the light through the broken boards, when 
derisive laughter arousing me, the sounds from mill dam and 
mill would again creep in among my blankets and their oc- 
cupant be aware he was hopelessly wide awake. 

And so the night's experiences passed in review, when sleep 
at last almost attained to, consciousness would ever overtake 
me. 


91 


92 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


Have you ever, all burdened by your load of mortality lain 
you down seeking rest, and rest fully came into the presence 
of that which you searched, the delightful borders of 
dreamland, and while vainly courting sleep, breathing 
its fragrant atmosphere, seeing the shore lines of that beauti- 
ful land stretching away along the waters that seem ever to 
border conscious existence only to be lost to view in the dis- 
tance dim; as you was about to step onto the grassy margin 
of dreamland, beyond its wavy washed sands, fringed with 
rifts of sea's foam, with sure tread to scale the tree-covered 
heights before you, there to listen to the trills of birds, natives 
of that country, and to pluck a wealth of fruit ripening there; 
as you withheld your eager hand from grasping its fill to feast 
your eyes while the air you breathed was laden with the fra- 
grance of blooming flowers which bloom alone in dreamland, 
was it then with you as with me that night of the attempted 
exploration of the old water mill, that, just as you would 
have possessed yourself of your soul's desire, sleep, and been 
at rest in that beautiful country, dreamland, its mountains, 
foothills and shady dales, its fragrant breath, that had so cap- 
tivated your every sense, the music of its songsters inhabiting 
its rustling green leaves, the aroma of its fruits just within 
your reach, perfumes exhaled by bursting buds and banks of 
blooms, just then, all eluded your senslbilites and the leafy 
groves of dreamland, all so near you, its rolling plains carpet- 
ed with velvet green, perennial, each springing blade of ver- 
dure quaking in an Eden's pure air beckoning you to ‘‘ come 
on, come on," just then, as with me, did that beautiful scene, 
the mountains, plains, the shorelines of dreamland, like a 
summer's cloud navigating a summer sky, pass on, pass by, 
leaving you stranded, sleepless? 

Did you then, as I, standing far out on the tide -swept beach 
of consciousness, as phosphene lights glinted along the black 
waves rolling far away under the horrizon, a surf-drenched, 
lone castaway with sinking heart, throw signal to the breeze, 


THE DELIGHTFUL BORDERS OF DREAMLAND. 


93 


as over the water warder frothy sea foam cast by Monarch 
Neptune at your feet you cried: Land, ho! dreamland, ho ! 
Only to wait with hope deferred, wondering if your signal 
had been seen, your cry heard. Again, and again in agony 
to cry: O, thou imperious fate! leave me not to die. Only 
to hear from far, and near, voice of tempest shrieking by 
crying: “ too late! too late! awake! awake! 

So with me that night of the adventures in the old water 
mill. As often as dreamland, backing all sail, stood off the 
sands where waved my signal of distress and sounded my 
hail, and the prow of its rescuing boat propelled by oarsman, 
wrinkled, gray, old, almost vainly breasting the driving waves, 
finally by dextrous stroke and strong, grated its keel on the 
surfy shore, 1 would step into the frail craft which poets see- 
ing in their dreamings report of purest white, in which all 
weary and worn castaways of busy, disappointing earth, 
rescued at last, are floated, gently floated, as they sleep, floated 
across the dark and ever befogged waters rolling between the 
headlands, the evenings and the mornings of men’s lives, 
finally to land on a wreck -strewn shore, often spoken of by 
divines, in spite of revelation, as the unknown beyond. 

As the wrinkled, storm-beaten, oarsman’s boat, guided by 
his ever noiseless stroke, buffering the crested breakers, slowly 
struggled away beyond the drenching surf’s spray into the 
thickening mists and stiller waters, under the influence of the 
changed surroundings, drowzily, my sea coat I wrapped about 
me, as if at last to sleep, the prow of the oarsman’s boat 
would ever grate on pebbled beach of consciousness, 
and on looking ashore beyond the old oarsman’s dripping 
oar, there, the stony gaze once rivetted on me inside the old 
water mill door met my sight, with glassy stare. I have 
never been able to determine just when the countless eyes 
scattered along the beach like sea shells imbedded in the sands 
fringing southern sea wherever we beat towards a landing, 
ceased their gaze on me. 


94 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


Do what I would to evade their stare they were ever pres- 
ent to my sight, nor have 1 any idea when the rickety old 
water wheel there at the end of the mill race by the sycamores, 
stopped its efforts to go round, or if it ceased its wailings on 
the night air, before its companion, the old water mill had 
finally finished its journey, through the mists of the night. 
But it ever seemed to me as we neared the shore, and 
seemingly the journey was past, the rescue complete, 
and that we were about to land, that some contrary 
current of wakefulness coming in would float our boat away 
just in time to wreck it by coming in contact with the whirl- 
ing arms, the crooked, warped arms of an old water wheel, 
half submerged in the tossing flood of a fitful surf. 

When, worn, desparing, the oarsman, old and gray would 
release his trembling hands from his sweeps, his last crossing 
of the darkling waters complete, and as the black waters roll- 
ed over our white gunwales, 1 heard the old man say, in 
whispered voice: 


CHAPTER XXVI. 


AS THE BLACK WATERS ROLLED OVER OUR 
WHITE GUNWALES. 

i i Ilf ELL; It can't be helped, now. But then the wreck 
V V was of no value. The world is full of wrecks. 
Everybody, white and black was afraid to go near this one . 
Its doors I am told have been closed since the Mexican war 
veterans came marching home. We havn't been here long 
enough to learn the reasons for the closing of the mill, so 
long ago. The only interest we can have in its burning grows 
out of the fact that if we destroy private property in the 
‘‘Border Slave States" as we go through, it will be the osten- 
sible cause for still more Kentuckyans going south into the 
confederate armies. I might say for the remainder of them 
to go." 

Then a voice from out in the fog 1 recognized to be that of 
our regimental Adjutant went on to say: 

“ Officer of the day says, its reported a light was seen up 
stairs in the mill some hours ago, but the sentry said nothing 
about it at the time, he says, because the night being so dark 
he thought it was on the other side of the mill stream, but its 
evident now the light was in the mill attic. " 

With this I threw off my great sea coat through whose 
many folds I evidently had been looking at the eyes on the 
beach. I jumped from out the sinking boat through a high 
running surf, onto the beach awake and saved. 


95 


CHAPTER XXVII. 


THE BURNING OF ‘‘THA OLE WATAH MILL^^ AND 
ON TO KNOXVILLE. 

T he old mill building was a pyre of leaping flame. With 
the exception of portions of a huge hewn oak frame, 
now simply lines of live coals of fire and the fast consuming 
remains of a shed annex at the rear of the glowing mass, 
standing by the side of the land, and reaching out over the 
stream on stone pillars now to be seen, the floor having fallen 
the mill building had floated away in showers of burning em- 
bers on the night air before I was finally awake. 

The entrance way to the old grinding floor, through which 
we once battered our way, was now a gaping mouth emitting 
sheets of flame. Some great floor logs stretching from pier 
to pier, now merely glowing cylinders of burning coals, were 
there. Little any looker on would now think their last ser- 
vice was that of suspension bridges, over gaping chasms. 
Beyond these glowing footways, was the sunken floor we had 
seen, now a sheet of fire. It still held fast to the charred sill 
of the shed and there were zig zag lines of fire outlining the 
course of stair steps, while down that burning firy way leap- 
ed, twisting, writhing, long drawn shreds of fire into the 
brilliantly lit waters at the base of a molten plane. 

And so went the old water mill with its denizens all. The 
face on the floor had been burned. The spiders' hoarded 
wealth of diamonds destroyed, its owners too, the spiders, as 
must all hoarders of earth's treasures, had passed away. 

The revilee sounded, we fell in. There was roll call. 
Inspection over, breakfast was hastily despatched, each soldier 
of the Forty Fifth Ohio Infantry, Col. Runkle commanding, 
96 


BURNING OF ''THA OLE WATAH MILL’’ AND ON TO KNOXVILLE 97 

feasting off one of Mack Kinzie’s loaves of fresh, light bread 
baked to a turn which the 45th boys, at this writing old men 
will well remember, though it should be found the burning of 
the mill had slipped an old man's memory. 

Our regimental wagons nicely packed, but our mess short 
one lantern, were ready to take their place in the trains. By 
regiments the Brigade moved down the mill creek valley, 
leaving one old floor log of the water mill stretched from 
foundation pillar to pillar beyond, still smoking. The 45th 
crossed Cedar Bridge just as daylight lit up the scene of our 
last night’s camp. Riding onto higher ground as the road 
rose from the valley, I turned my horse to take a last look 
perhaps, at the picture below. 

Far up the stream, as a back ground stretched from shore 
to shore, was a sheet of water in which was mirrored over- 
hanging forest trees, meadows, slopes and distant cliffs of 
stone. Across the water pool’s expanse was hung a sheet of 
the tumbling flood, strung as on a line extending along an 
old rock mill dam from shore to shore. To the right of it 
meadows and cultivated fields stretched away to the base of 
the cedar fringed cliffs. The left of the picture was made up 
of apple orchards close beside the pool at the old mill dam. 
A long line of white limbed sycamore trees skirting a mill 
race carrying water to a water wheel still going about were 
there. There were some stone foundation abutments stand- 
ing out in the stream near the old water wheel as if to still 
keep it company in its day of misfortune. Beyond the syca- 
mores and the wheel on elevated ground was a great, red, 
brick mansion house nestling among the trees. Beyond the 
mansion were stretches of gardens and fields rolling away to 
the very feet of lofty limestone cliffs and through the picture 
of field, orchard and cedar copse, confined between limestone 
fences breast high ran the stony turnpike road coming down 
the side of the hill crowded with infantry troops and batteries 
of artilery. While yet I looked there soared away in the air 


98 THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 

from the mansion house a bright tin water bucket. 

Higher and higher it rose as if on p inioned wing, across in- 
tervening grass fields, up, up the flashing water pail soared, 
up the great high brown stone cliffs it went to a stream of 
water gushing from the face of the mighty wall. Then as 1 
looked far down the perpendicular cliff that bucket now 
brimming full of coldest spring water fell, actually seemed to 
fall to steady in air as if on outstretched wings, then to float 
gracefully back over meadows green, orchard trees and cedar 
grown stone fences to be lost to my sight at the mansion 
house. 

As I looked through my glasses to discover the wires on 
which the pail had traveled empty to the flowing spring, and 
back filled with water, 1 saw the insane white woman stand- 
ing in her front yard waving her arms aloft, evidently be- 
seeching the passing troops to send her lost husband home to 
her, when, turning my horse, sadly 1 rode away. 

We had proceded but a short distance on the road to Stan- 
ford Court House, enroute to contest with General Pegram’s 
Confederate forces the right of possession of all Cumberland 
river crossings on Burnside's route to Knoxville, Tennessee, 
when Major rode up to me and together going to the Officer 
of the Day, we proceded to explain, that during the preceding 
night supposing we might find confederates concealed in the 
old water mill, we had inspected its interior, finding nothing 
of that nature, but from some cause we had dropped our 
light, thus as we supposed setting the old building on fire. 
And so the burning was accounted for, and we were excused. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

MANY YEARS AFTER THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 

M any years after the war of the great rebellion, which 
was the occasion of the march of General Burnside's 
army across the state of Kentucky and of our camping by 
the old water mill, I was engaged, in company with my old 
army comrade, the Illinois Major, running a railroad survey 
from opposite the City of Madison, Indiana, from the south 
shore of the Ohio river through the state of Kentucky and by 
way of Cumberland Gap into the valley of the Tennessee and 
on through the mountains to the Atlantic coast, a road, por- 
tions of which have since been built. We had been in the 
field for weeks finding a feasible route from the Ohio valley 
to the table lands of Central Kentucky and were now work- 
ing on a line that would run through Harrodsburg and on to 
Stanford almost paraleling a portion of the roads over which 
General Smith's division of General Burnside's Army of the 
Ohio had marched on its advance through the state. 

We arrived one day at a pretty stream flowing through 
green fields, skirting high, cedar-tree covered cliffs. We 
struck the creek with our line about half way between a long 
covered wooden bridge that spanned the rock bed stream, and 
a water fall at a great stone dam that had once been thrown 
across the stream to create a mill site. Below the long line 
of the idly tumbling water that reached across the bed of the 
stream, was a row of sycamore trees, and beside and between 
the lines of sycamores was to be seen a great ditch, deep and 
wide. Its banks were being overgrown by young cotton 
wood trees. At the foot of the overgrown water ditch had 
once been a great water wheel set up on some stone 
piers, that now bleached white were breasting the rapid flow- 
ing stream. We at once recognized the brick mansion 
house standing on the rising ground as the place we met the 
insane white woman when in the army and that we were after 
99 


LcfC. 


100 THA OLE WATAH MILL. 

the lapse of many years again at the site of our adventure of 
the long ago in the old water mill. 

Knowing our party was to be engaged at the stream and 
its approaches in the neighborhood for an indefinite length of 
time, we arranged to go into camp down in the valley near 
what we were informed was the veritable Cedar Brigde we 
had crossed on one morning early in the sixties. We fully 
satisfied ourselves of this fact by riding across on its still 
ample roadway, mounting the grade leading beyond the val- 
ley, and looking up the stream, where the picture once spread 
before our field glasses, excepting the old water wheel, and 
the traveling water pail glistening in the morning light was, 
with the additional exception, perhaps of the increased growth 
of the orchard forest trees and the line of sycamores, about 
as we had left it when we, after the adventure of a night, fell 
in with the boys on the march after General Pegram’s 
forces. 

Of course it will be understood from what has been pre- 
viously said in these chapters, that while we expected on 
leaving Cedar Bridge, crossing of Polley's river, to take with 
us all information required for the future locating of a rail- 
road line across the old mill stream. We also, Major and 
myself, hoped that as we worked, incidentally, we might in 
some way, perhaps through the medium of the old mansion 
on the hill, come into possession of something, however 
meager it might be, in the way of information as to the his- 
tory of the old mill we had|once visited, which would enable us 
to lay the burden of curiosity and doubt, we had carried for so 
many years aside, which, as often as given away to incredu- 
lous listener, our promise of silence being for the moment 
set aside, was as often returned with thanks for a good one, 
but with regrets, etc., followed by an incredulous laugh. 

On visiting the site of our night adventuae as told in these 
pages we found as I have said, the stone foundation pillars 
the frame mill structure was burned off, standing out in the 
swirling waters. The old water wheel and all pertaining to 
it excepting some foundations, had been removed, but the 
clear water from the mill dam’s pool still flowed in great 
volume from the mouth of the race down over the rocky 
creek bed and the great limestone ledges where the old water 
mill used to stand. Again we sat among the sycamore roots 
alone, and reviewed that night’s experiences of the long gone 
by. 


CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE RAILROAD SURVEYORS CALL ON THE LADY 
OF THE HOUSE. 

T hen leaving our old camping scene, we followed a path- 
way leading from the old darn and the apple orchard 
hard by, to the mansion house on the rising ground and stood 
again on the lawn where years before we had heard the in- 
sane woman’s cries, this time being welcomed by the loud 
bay of a number of hound dogs who announced our approach 
with bark and long drawn cry. The old style knocker on the 
main door of the mansion, a great hand of polished brass 
grasping a sledge hammer of large proportions, under our 
touch announced our coming. 

When the door finally opened, we stood in the presence of 
the blackest human being we had ever seen. There stood be- 
fore us, as we afterwards learned, the lady of the house, 
whose every motion, and expression of contenance, betoken- 
ed self poise, and a warm heart. Instinctively we knew we 
were facing a superior person though she was very black. 
For the first time in all our lives we uncovered and bowed to 
a negress. There was something about her appearance that 
commanded us to do so. 

1 want to say here, that since hearing her history as told by 
her husband, Josiah Marshall, I am convinced we bowed to 
woman’s worth when we uncovered to her. The world’s 
writers have with gifted pens recorded the virtues of white 
women and told of their nobility of soul as shown in count- 
less numbers of lives of love and devotion to humanity, and 
may I not hope to induce in some measure as an aid in the 
work of elevating the negro of our country, the sympathies 

101 


102 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


of my reader for the black woman burden bearers of the 
South, by telling the story of one of their number, “Melissy 
and her children,” who with the people of their race, were 
doomed by Christian owners to lives of unrequitted toil. 
Fated to work on and on, that their white owners might be 
enriched, their baskets heaped, their storehouses bursting with 
the fruits of a soil moistened by the sweat of unpaid labor. 
Their every cranny filled to surfiet with the groans of their 
black burden bearers, while the man who toiled, owned noth- 
ing in his own right, not so much as wife or child; hoped for 
nothing, excepting fare meet for a slave, and the realization 
of the promise of the white man’s pulpit made to the negro, 
galleries of the delights of heaven after their bruised heels 
breaking earth’s hard clods in the interests of the master, fit- 
ted the slave for sweet heaven’s enjoyment. 

The pulpit, ever anxious because of the imperiled souls in 
the negro gallery; the preacher being a son of the Creator 
himself, and white, sure of his inheritance of immortality be- 
cause of the accepted forms of his church, but neglecting to 
tell the colored galleries, as probably he forgot to do, that 
a Creator who foreordained a black man should be born and 
sold in slavery on earth, could not be trusted to confer any 
good thing on the negro in any place where might be found 
a white man’s soul in what is called the hereafter. 

1 beg your pardon for speaking of Melissy’s children as her 
own, for how could a human chattel, herself subject to sale 
on the market, her little ones tugging at her dress skirts as 1 
have seen them do, and as the crowd of bidders anxious for a 
bargain pressed about the auctioneer, hiding themselves as 
best they could under her skirt folds hoping for protection 
from the greed of the bargain seekers, call a child she bore to 
be the property of her white master, her own. 

Notwithstanding the color line drawn by Southern people 
today in direct violation of the logic of events in which they 
played so important, and as soldies, honorable a part during 


RAILROAD SURVEYORS CALL ON THE LADY OF THE HOUSE IO3 

the sixties, 1 trust I may so present the story of the lady of 
that house the Melissys and their children of the South, many 
of whom still live, as to induce some degree of sympathy for 
the old time burden bearers, now themselves growing old, the 
negro woman of the Southern States of the American Union, 
now citizens of this great nation. 

This people whose vow is recorded in letters of blood on 
the walls of Jehovah's throne rooms, that as long as the bat- 
tle flag that went down before the assault of our misguided 
people at Fort Sumpter only to rise again over thousands of 
earth works the country across, never again to be torn from 
its staff, shall be kissed by the breezes on the wide extended 
sea coasts of this our country, the pains of maternity shall 
never usher into life another slave child on the North Ameri- 
can Continent. 

It has been a source of regret since there was told to me the 
story of ‘‘Melissy And The Chillens," that some talented ar- 
tist's hand, such as sketched the picture of “Uncle Tom's 
Cabin," that master canvas portraying the depths and heights 
of human slavery, as it existed in our country during the 
days of the Christian Legares, of Kentucky, and the South, 
failed to come into possession of the facts of Melissy's life 
history, as related to me by Josiah, instead of myself, that the 
story might have been told to the high honor of all slave 
mothers, who once were the prized foundations of their 
owner's wealth in a large area of this, at present, free land, 
whose business was to beget and bear their kind for service, 
and a market, and who suffered and died as mothers of chil- 
dren often died while in the line of that service for their mas- 
ters, no doubt sustained by the fact that they as individuals 
and their children after them were peculiarly favored of the 
white man's God, in that they were a part of and actors in a 
divinely instituted political and social condition among men, 
as witness the teachings from church pulpits under heaven- 
pointing spires on stately streets, and modest belfries on way- 


104 


THA OLE WATAH MILL. 


side green swards all over the Southland, while yet, the hard 
clods of its fields were being crushed by the heel of the slave 
mother's child. 

No Christian minister would dare insult the people of wor- 
shiping congregations South or North to-day, with the Christ- 
ian churches' plea of fifty years ago. ‘That human slavery 
in the United States of America was of the Divine mind's 
plan and a means in the hands of the slave owner for the 
elevation of the man from Africa and his descendants, from 
earth to heaven." 

The face greeting us at the mansion's door appeared black- 
er perhaps because as 1 stood 1 mentally contrasted its color 
with that of the white woman we met on our arrival the 
night we were now seeking information about. The moth- 
erly black face surrounded by ruffles of cap, and snowy linen 
neckwear, put us at once at our ease, then Major, our spokes- 
man, briefly informed the lady of the house that we were of 
the surveying party now running a line for the much talked of 
railroad that people were so skeptical about the construction 
of. Our spokesman also said, we had visited the place with 
Burnside's army years before, that we heard there one time 
an insane white woman crying for her lost husband and said 
as he stood before her he fancied he could still hear the poor 
supplicant's broken hearted appeals. 

In fixing the time of our visit in the past. Major referred to 
the burning of the old water mill, as having occurred the 
night we were there, and inquired if any member of her fam- 
ily could tell us something of the old mill’s past. The wom- 
an now opened the great door giving us a view of a wide 
high ceilinged room, an entrance way to as fine an appointed 
home as we had been permitted to peep into since coming 
into the state. The floor was richly carpeted and occupied by 
elegant furniture, suitable for a reception room, besides the 
line of gold bronze framed pictures on the walls. A finely 
carpeted stairway led from this room to the floor above. 
Asking to be excused, our hostess going to a door leading to 
an adjoining room called softly, “Josiah, Josiah, come here 
dear, some gentlemen want to talk to you about the ole 
watah mill, I reckon." Josiah proved to be the husband of 
the woman we had been talking to, he was quite as black as 
was his wife. 


CHAPTER XXX. 

JOSIAH MARSHALL. 

J OSIAH Marshall was a man of middle age, apparently 
very intelligent and a man of affairs. We afterwards 
learned he and his people had been slaves, that as a slave he 
had been the life companion of his master, at home, at school, 
and had gone with him and served him until his death on a 
field of battle of the Mexican war. He was, therefore, by 
education, and because of his experiences, entitled to be rated 
far above many white people we were continually meeting at 
the cross roads groceries, and at their homes along the line of 
our survey. 

Josiah Marshall, our host, being informed of the object of 
our call, invited us to seats, and after the good wife had set 
before us the usual apple jack and honey, incident to a call of 
a friend or a stranger in the Kentucky of that day, and during 
the discussion of it, and some first-rate home-made stogy 
cigars, our kind host informed us he could, “certainly,^^ relate 
the story of the old water mill, and would be glad to meet us 
at his house beginning that evening for that purpose. Ac- 
cordingly it was arranged we would return after supper at our 
camp, when the children of the household would all be at 
home from the old Marshall home place to which the family 
was preparing to remove. With that understanding we with- 
drew to camp near Cedar Bridge, and, as the shades of an- 
other dark night were again falling about the old homestead 
by the side of ‘‘The big road,'' Major and 1 once more ap- 
proached the old brick house, and this time we were met by 
a black woman and her happy family. Together with five 
linemen we took seats about a great stone hearth in a great 
105 


106 


THA OLE WAT AH MILL. 


dining room, hung about with portraits in oil of the honora- 
ble Spillman family who had owned the estate from the early 
settlement of the country. We were shown paintings of the 
last grand woman and her dead soldier husband of the line 
who had occupied the house. They were paintings of the in- 
sane white woman, and the lost husband we heard her crying 
for that night years ago. 

The room was soon filled by a company of intelligent, well- 
dressed and evidently happy colored people, men, women and 
children. All came from the fields to “ The big house ”, for 
they wanted to hear again Josiah Marshall’s story of the old 
water mill, and incidentally that of Melissy and the children, 
which, though heard by them before, was always new. 

Before beginning his story, our host introduced us all to 
his wife, Melissy, and their children, John Clay and Clarrisy 
Marshall. Clarrisy and John Clay were twins. Born slaves 
they had, with their mother, been sold to Arkensaw negro- 
buyers when children, and had only found their way back to 
home, and Kentucky, after being freed by President Abraham 
Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation. They had succesfully 
resisted all commands of former owners and masters to marry, 
and were therefore unclaimed, excepting by father and 
mother. 

We were soon acquainted with the fact that all the people 
in the room save only the small children, had been born as 
the property of the Marshalls, excepting Melissy and her 
children, who were born on the old Captain Jackson estate, 
before the Mexican war. 

The Marshalls we were informed, had come to Kentucky 
from ihe State of Virginia with their colored people, and ac- 
quiring large tracts of land in an early day, had ever held 
them, and never sold a black person for any other reason 
than that they were “ too mean for decent colored people to 
associate with,” and so must be gotten rid of. The facts 
were as Josiah told us. “ A mastah allers knode what to do 


JOSIAH MARSHALL. 


107 


with a breechy hog, but he wasn't allowed to get rid of a bad 
cullud man that way, besides he wouldn't be good for soap 
grease no how, so he sold him on foot. " 

It soon developed these black folks were all to remove to 
the “ Old Kunnel Maashall home place," where much of the 
story of Melissy and the Chillens" to follow this page will 
be found to have had its beginning, and where the man 
Josiah who in his own way and words is to tell it to you was 
born and raised. 

It may be imagined, that as Melissy the gray haired ex- 
slave mother, and her son and daughter of the coming recital, 
sat near father the relator, the assembled ex -slave as the story 
begun and proceded to a finish were sometimes greatly excit- 
ed, sometimes in tears, at others giving expression to feelings 
of indignation and abhorrence, but while this is so, they were 
always in the end moved to kindly expressions when the 
names of the Marshalls were spoken. 

The introductions all gotten through with, and the company 
drawing chairs close about Josiah, Melissy, John Clay and 
Miss Clarrisy Marshall, Josiah, lighting another cigar of his 
own tobacco raising and make, went on to say: 


CHAPTER XXXI. 

‘TACT WAS THE OLE WATAH MILL WASHANTED.’^ 

a £ O youall were with the soldiahs the night the ole 
^ watah mill was burned was you'^ said our host? 
‘if you set it afiah with your own hands, which I know you 
nevah, you done everybody on this place a favor. 

“And now youall want me to tell you why the ole mill 
was shet so long. Well, gemmelmen fact was, the ole mill 
was hanted and Tm goin to tell you how it come to be hant- 
ed, but its a fact whether the sperits that took possession of 
the mill were good or bad, there wasn't a cullud man nor no 
pore white for that mattah in all this country round, that 
sence the first settlement by people from Virginia had sent its 
cawn griss to the ole watah mill to be ground who could be 
hiahd to go inside its big doah. And 1 reckon the pore 
whites and the cullud men before the Linken wah were the 
only men who evah run a mill or done a day's hard work in 
Kaintucky, least that I see. 

“When youall hear my story youil know, peers to me, 
why the ole mill doah was fast shet for so many long years. 
You heard Mistus Clarrisy Spillman sing and cry and talk as 
you passed this house the night your rigiment camped by the 
mill race undah the sycamore trees, you say, 1 remembah the 
evennin mighty well, myself. Pore chile, for she was only a 
broken hahted chile durin the long dreary years that she 
cried for her lovah husband. She begged for him to come, 
and cried on and on till the very houah of her death, she did, 
and, one day, long years aftah youall soldiahs were here, the 
pore chile stopped moanin, and cryin, and watchin, for 
her husband and we folded her pore white hands on her still 
108 


''FACT WAS THA OLE WAFAH MILL WAS HANTED/' 109 

breast, the storms of life all bein ovah, folded them on that 
lill breast I learned to press to mine when the dead angel was 
our baby mistus crawlin on the soff carpeted floah in her 
mother’s house. We laid her by the side of her young hus- 
band, near ole Kunnel and dear Mistus Maashall, her fathah 
and mothah, and Cappen John Clay Maashall, her brothah, 
once buried in the sands of Texas. They all rest now in the 
Pisgah chuch yard where the Maashall people have been 
buryin their dead for ginerations past. 

"The pore, tired soul, sweet mistus Clarrisy, how sweet 
must have been her rest that night as she lay motionless on 
her own weddin bed, dead, dead aftah so many years of sor- 
row. How happy the meetin with her lost lovah husband 
must have been. Mistus Clarrisy, the insane chile you saw 
and heard as the soldiahs went by, died many years aftah her 
husband, Majah Spillman, and nevah for a moment dreamed 
that her husband was dead, though her life all those years 
was one horrid, unending dream. She passed her days and 
nights waitin for him to return to her. 

"But as youall are waitin for me to splain why the ole 
mill was hanted, if you will lissen to me and sense an ole 
cullud man because he speaks as his people spoke on a Kain- 
tucky fahm, when black folks were all slaves and workin for 
earthly mastahs while prayin to the good Lawd in heaven, 
undah their breath of cose, beggin him to set them free, 1 will 
try to tell you all the story of the ole watah mill, and I reck- 
on I can help you at least, to all we cullud folks know of the 
reasons why it was allowed to remain idle for so many years. 


CHAPTER I. 

MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS. 


£ £ /^NE cold, snowy wintah day my fathah named one 
of his many black boys Josiah Maashall, for that 
was his own name, and that boy was me. That very day my 
fathah said to mothah, while she was coffin hard as she al- 
ways done in frosty weathah, that, ‘As his eighth baby boy, 
sayin nothin about the girls, was a Christmas giff to him 
from the Lawd,if the Lawd was minded to spare the chile un- 
til it was five years old and give his sarvent, the boy's father, 
grace, and fathah said he was powful shore the Lawd would, 
as the chile was likely and its fathah an ole Baptis deacon, 
then in that case, the deacon, as his part of the contrac be- 
tween them, would feel hisself raly bleedged to mind what 
the bible said about the Lawd's othah sarvent, Abraham, and 
Abraham's trial of faith in his offering of his big boy at the 
thawn bush as a giff to his heavenly mastah, and, he would 
tote his own last bawn son on the chile's fifth birthday, 
Christmas, airly in the mawnin — seeing he had so many boys 
sides othah chillens and so lill else he could spare— to his own 
earthly mastah, as a thank offerin — the Lawd helpin him — a 
Christmas giff to Kunnul Maashall's only son, John Clay 
Maashall, bawn the same Christmas day his eighth boy was 
bawn, as some slight token of his ole black sarvent's love, so 
he would.' That was fathah’s vow to the Lawd, to be kept 
by him and his house, as good Baptis people, providin the 
Lawd done his part and give the deacon the powah of his 
own grace to 'stain him in the final partin from his last bawn 
son, if he should be the last. 


110 


AS TOLD BY JOSIAH MARSHALL. Ill 

‘‘So, about the first scriptah teachin 1 can stinctly remem- 
bah was what my fathah say Ministah Samuel Jackson told 
him about Abraham’s faith, and how that good ole Baptis 
offered his wife’s lam to the Lawd, or was goin to do so if it 
hadn’t been for the fiah from heaven interferin, he was. I 
remembah that as mothah was holdn me in her lap, wrapped 
all up in her tow apron tryin to keep the hound puppy dawgs 
from eatin my toes dare off, and sturbin the worship while 
fathah tole about Abraham’s faith, and then prayed, and 
prayed, prayed for 'stainin grace from heaven when the time 
should come for him to tote the chile of his haht away from 
his seven sons and all his girls that would be left weepin and 
lonesome at home, that mothah as often as fambly prayers 
were said mawnins as the years went by, would wrap her 
nice, clean tow apron about her boy, as she coffed and chok- 
ed and pressed her baby to her soah side, cause her ownest 
lam was to be sacrificed some Christmas mawnin’ ‘only,’ she 
said, ‘only the sacrifidn like Sarah’s will all be on the mothah’s 
part, jess to make a fathah’s word good, when he wasn’t 
spected to make any sitch contracs, for the Lawd was blessin 
him all the time, else why had he given fathah so many chil- 
lens,’ and so on every mawnin when work wasn't pressin, as 
mothah coffed and cried, fathah would pray, and talk, pound 
a cheer and talk about Abraham’s obejence, and that he was 
a sample for all good Baptis deacons to foller and pahticlahly 
a deacon like hisself, Abraham was, for the good Lawd, while 
he and all his people should be slaves and sarve mastahs who 
sometimes refused pore cullud folks even straw, as Ministah 
Samuel on the ole Jackson place said he was told! Pharaho, 
King of Egypt, did the chillens of Israel, yet he hisself had 
been given a good kind mastah, and so he must keep his vow 
whethah or no, and so, while mothah sobbed and held her 
hand on her soah side, and kicked the kittens and the hound 
puppies out of the skillets on the hearth, makin them wait 
for their eatin till weall had had breakfas, fathah would tell 
her ovah and ovah again in his pray in how Abraham, the 


112 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


man of the Lawd, took Sarah's onlyest boy, Isaac, who, of 
cose, was hissen to take, cause boys always belong to the 
fathah, less the white ownah havin need of money sole them, 
and that Sarah, Abraham's wife nevah had seven sons left at 
home sides a heap of girls to work for her, she hadn't, aftah 
Isaac was gone, as mothah had aftah Josiah was done gone 
away. 

So fathah talked on and prayed on at fambly worshipin 
mawnins and evenins as the years of my young life went by, 
while mothah kept on squeezin her baby boy to her soah side 
and fightin the puppy dawgs and the kittens away from her 
own black lam that was to be the price paid in obejence to its 
fathah's hasty vow. 

‘‘I remembah hearin my dear mothah say one mawnin when 
fathah was more gifted with the powah of prayer than com- 
mon, that, ‘It seems to me all the scripchah Ministah Samuel 
Quigley tells about, bein told about Abraham and his wife's 
doins with Isaac and their son, was printed for mothahs of 
Sarah's time to read, for of cose they could read, and don't 
ply to me and my boy, cause cullud mothahs in Kaintucky if 
they do belong to the Baptis chuch cullud and set sometimes 
in the loft of the Baptis chuch white are neah allowed to 
read the bible or to larn to read atall. There is nobody carin 
for a lill black tot like mine that’s hardly worth fifty dollahs 
to any white membah of the Baptis chuch in Kaintucky, nor 
to anybody but its mothah and she hasn’t a cent of money. 
Who would build a fiah in the bresh and furnish a sheep to 
save a black lam like mine? But there was a fiah and a white 
lam all ready and waitin to save Sarah's boy, as there still 
would be though sheep are scarce if my boy was white. 

‘“Any way, it does seem hard for the good Lawd to hold 
fathah to his promise, and take my boy from his soff bed 
close by my soah side, jess to train an ole black Baptis deacon 
for heaven, when all the rale sacraficin falls on a sick mothah,' 
and so she said, ‘whethah a foolish ole man's vow is good or 
bad, one. I’m goin to keep my boy as long as I live' and 


AS TOLD BY JOSIAH MARSHALL. i l) 

pressin her hand to her side, she said as shecoffed, ‘that won’t 
be very long.' And so the cryin and coffin by mothah, and 
the argyfyin and prayin by fathah went on and on, and on 
for years, he seekin savin grace for hisself for use when the 
time of his great trial should come, for he was so weakly like, 
spirichally, he said. While mothah being strong spirichally 
was spected to do all her duty, of cose, and fathah said, as a 
Baptis deacon’s wife, mothah was to bow to the leadins of a 
kind providence, remembahin she was the mothah of a dea- 
con’s chillens, and that where much was given, a mighty site 
of cose would be spected.’ But after all that, and though 
mothah tried evah so hard to patiently bow to the require- 
ments of duty as a meek Christian woman, and would try 
evah so hard to sing when not chokin or coffin, she got porer 
and porer, while her lam, the blackest one in the flock, 
crowdin the one-room cabin nights at the patch, was as fat as 
any gahden mole in the summah time. 

“Gentlemen, there was anothah snowy Chrismas rnawnin, 
jess five years aftah my fathah made his hard contrac with 
the Lawd, and mothah hearin of the bargain begin cryin soon 
as he told her and peers to me now she cried all them years. 
The snow had been peltin the cabin shakes and pilin ovah the 
fiah pole wood pile out by the lane fence, and fallin down the 
big mouthed stone chimbley makin the fiah sizzle for gettin 
ready for that Chrismas rnawnin. The snow had piled ovah 
the big logs of the wood pile hidin the choppin axe, the maul 
and the wedges so the boys were kept huntin for them every 
time mothah wanted more wood on the fiah. The rail fences 
were now only lines hung with gahments of snow. It was 
the rnawnin of fathah’s long dreaded Chrismas day, the time 
of his trial, that my pore sick mothah had been so long cryin 
about, the time had come at last when fathah’s vow made to 
the Lawd was to be kept. 

“It was way long before daylight that fathah stuck his head 
out of the doah to see if it was still snowin, and then rousted 
some of the boys out to hunt the axe and maul and wedges 


114 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


to chop some wood to get breakfas with, and called some of 
the girls from their warm beds on the floah of the livinroom, 
for there was no othah room, and soon the fiah was leapin 
way up the big stone chimbley and all about the big back 
log, the kittle begin to sing, the cats to purr side the hearth, 
the girls were mixin the cawn bread and gittin breakfas, hur- 
ryin so they could look in the stockins fringin the big oak 
house log above the fiah place shelf, anxious to take out the 
pop cawn balls, and cakes of maple tree sugah, good chil- 
lens visitah comin in his sled, they hoped, had stuffed dare to 
the toes, as they tiptoed almose to the treasure, but dassent to 
tetch till aftah prayin, they laffed with glee, while m othah, 
presssin me to her soah bosom, sobbed and sobbed. 

“Breakfas was soon ready. By that time the boys and 
girls by the light of the fiah place had gathahd about the big 
stone hearth, and so had the white and gray and black kitties 
and the puppy dawgs all. Then the boys and girls and fathah 
and mothah kneeled on the bare floah close to the fiah as 
weall could get for the kittles and pots and pans and cats, and 
the girls all whisperin low about what they hoped to find in 
the nice washed and darned ole woolen stockins hangin on 
the pegs. Aftah prayers, mothah took me on her lap, and 
cryin as though her haht shorely would break this time, she 
bowed way ovah her baby till he was most crushed as her 
hot tears dripped on his face. While fathah, breshin the 
skillits and kitties aside kneeled right down close to the hot 
hearth stones, rubbin his smokin trousahs, raised his voice 
higher and higher as the fiah crackeld, askin for a double 
potion of powah, jess for that one time, and for a mighty in- 
crease of 'stainin grace for hisself in that day of a lovin 
fathah's and a obeyin mothah's sore fliction. Fathah receiv- 
ed the powah as he always did, jess for the askin. He always 
believin he had it, he had it of cose, he raised his voice, and 
his, fface, while he rubbed his hot leg as it smoked, and he 
prayed, and then moved away a lill further from the fiah, and 


AS TOLD BY JOSIAH MARSHALL. 


115 


then mothah had to move to let him git a lill further away 
from the fiah, so he could pray for the chile he was to loose, 
who he reminded the Lawd, belonged to his earthly mastah 
anyway and not to the mothah who pressed her lost boy to 
her soah side that last mawnin, as it proved, he was ever to 
be with her at her home. 

‘‘By the time the prayin and the breakfas was ovah, and 
the popcawn and maple sugah cakes, the sweet sugar girls 
and some boys had been taken from the socks hangin on the 
pegs, and the track of a man's big boot had been found in 
the ashes side the back log showin where Mastah Kringle had 
stepped in the fiah place as he come into the room and went 
out, it was broad day light, and the time had almost come 
for the deacon, my fathah, to pay his vow, and the boy who 
had nevah been away from his mothah in all his lifetime, 
was soon to be offered up to keep his fathah's faith. 

“Lovin arms of brothahs and sistahs carried him about that 
one room for the very last time; then there were othahs who 
nevah wanted to nurse him who now wanted to carry him, 
jess once more, while fathah would keep lookin out of the 
doah at the deep snow, and hurryin mothah to git ready, 
and then he would set down by the fiah as he hurried her, 
and try to smoke and then look away ovah the snowy hills 
again. The brothahs and all the sistahs had given the 
goin away boy a taste of their maple sugah for he would 
nevah git no more sugah where he was goin they said, as 
the great white folks in the big house would nevah think a 
lill black boy liked sugah, they wouldnt. 

“The kitties had all purred good by, the puppy dawgs by 
their long earnest stare at their playmate now going away 
had looked it. Then mothah, her cheeks all streamin with 
tears put the new woolsy jacket with one pocket in it on her 
boy, turnin up the sleeves because they were too long, for a 
very lill boy, pressin the collar down because it was cut too" 
high till the boy growed, she pulled nice darned stockins 


116 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


ovah her boy’s stoah shoes to keep out the snow as fathah 
hurried her, a lill bunnel of all his othah cloze was put undah 
the boy’s arm, and the fathah, mothah and their boy went 
out of the cabin doah into the deep snow, while all the othah 
boys, and the girls of the fambly with their kitties, followed 
by the puppy dawgs and the ole mother dawg crowded out 
onto the lill porch as they went away, the dawgs barked, and 
the chillens cried goodby, goodby brother, and then lalTed to 
see me stradlin ovah the high places tryin to step deep down 
in mothah’s tracks as we went away from her house while 
she coffed and cried. My! how high that lill boy’s stockind 
feet had to step to lite in his mothahs tracks in that deep 
snow, but his tiahd mothah couldnt tote him, and his fathah 
stuffin his hands in his pockets went smokin and singin on 
stridin through the snow hahdly thinkin to look behind him 
for his face was set on the big mansion house way cross the 
snowy fiels where he was now goin aftah prayin about his 
sacrafice so long. But mothah, chokin and coffin, helpin me 
all she could still struggled on. How that picchah comes be- 
fore m e now. 

“Seems to me, as 1 look back at the snow covered cabin 
house, its great stone chimbley standin out in the gahden 
coated in white, 1 think 1 kin still hear the girls and boys 
callin, good by Siah, good by, and see fathah aftah trampin 
a road through the drifted snow for mothah and me to pass 
through to the big oak bars of the great grass fiel, put them 
up, and we flounderin on around the cornah of the woods 
paschah by the ole sugah makin camp, soon to pass out of 
sight of home, there often comes to me now, as then, on the 
crisp mawnin air of a wintah day, the ‘goodby, goodby, 
come back when the white folks will let you, goodby’, of 
that longago. 1 was bawn in the oak shacked cabin at the 
Maashall cullud folks patch, and soon as the girls and boys 
could tote me 1 lived among the green fiels and in the shady 
woods, summah times, and see them and the chirpin snow 


AS TOLD BY JOSIAH MARSHALL. 117 

birds, wintah days, but in all my life, it* seemed to me that 
mornin I nevah did see the lill brown birds so peart or look so 
nice, or so many blue and g^ray and red dressed birds jukin 
round among the fence cornahs, or runnin along the snow- 
banked rails in all my wintah days before. They were whis- 
lin, flyin, chirpin, hoppin everywhere. The red birds set up 
on the tops of swingin briahs and called and called to us, even 
the jays knew Chrismas mawnin had come and were huntin 
round among the trees for nuts stored away by the wood 
peckers the summah before, for their comin back in the 
spring. The jays as we passed along would stop huntin for 
wintah clustahs of red berries on the >aplin trees in the rail 
fence cornahs and jukin their topnot heads as if knowin we 
were goin to the big house to enjoy the day, would seem to 
promise every one of them to wait for us to come back, plain 
as a jay bird could speak. And so we struggled on, the snow 
often up to the lill black boy's arms in the path fathah and 
mothah broke. 

“Goin on past the great snow capped, vine crested, hewn, 
morticed fence posts, where the brown, red and the yallah 
leaves of the last summah vines, and clustahd frozen red 
berries still held fast by their frosted fingahs, and the wintah 
birds fluttered about their snow-filled, deserted nests of the 
sunny days gone. I dont know if the birds watched for the 
comin home, if they did watch, they waited only to see a thin, 
bent, frail, haht-broken ole black slave woman, as she went 
coffin and cryin, and alone. Or a tiahd ole black man stag- 
gerin undah his hefty load, one. The boy.^^ why he didnt go 
back. I nevah have reckoned fathah see a bird, a red berry, 
or noticed a quail, or rabbit crouchin down undah the briah 
bushes in the long brown grass in their hidin place undah the 
weight of snow, as he went smokin and singin along on that 
wintah day mawnin finally to wait, and wait, at the Maashall 
lane gate for that tiahd mothah and her boy to come to him 
at the very end of the long years of his faithful preparin for 


118 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


his sacrafice waitin at the big white gate at the Maashall man- 
sion house where we mothah and me stood at last, breathless 
and worn, which, closin on its rusty hinges between fathah’s 
offerin and its mothah, was to crush her haht. 

“Aftah leadin his offerin through the gate into the wide 
walnut tree lane which bordered the great lawn about the 
Maashall house, and that seperated the house grounds from 
the fiels, fathah shet too the gate, leavin mothah on the othah 
side of it remindin her, as tiahd and leanin hard at the end of 
her years of sorrow she clung to the gate for support, that at 
the sacrafice Abraham made, Sarah, his ole wife, stood afar 
off, and that Sarah nevah dimed no hill or a lane gate, so of 
cose, mothah bein a Baptis deacon’s wife, she too must stand 
afar off. 

“By that time mothah was coffin hard, the air was filled 
with floatin frost, she said she must give her boy up. So 
between her coffin spells she reached her arm through the big 
gate and drawin me as close to her as she could, dear mothah 
gave me the very last kiss as it proved to be, I was evah to 
have pressed on my face by my mothah’s sweet lips. 

“Fathah then took me away leavin mothah lookin through 
the gate as we went up the wide stone walk leadin to the 
summah house that then stood where one now stands neah 
the ole side porch. As we went away from mothah, 1 re- 
membah hearin her with thick voice say, ‘Good by, good by 
Siah dear, your ole mothah nevah will see you again, 
she won’t. Keep youah nice new woolsy cloze, clean my 
son, for you’l nevah come back to me any more to cuddle 
close to my achin side, and have youah cloze darned and 
washed, you won’t. Oh, nobody will love my pore lost boy 
any more as hese bin usen to, they wont, your more than a 
mile from home this minit you are, see here honey, now you 
remembah youah high and sponsible raisin, and don’t you 
nevah be obstropolous to no white folks, do you hear your 
mothah, O, dear, O, dear.’ 


AS TOLD BY JOSIAH MARSHALL. 119 

'‘By this time we were neah the summah house standin 
out there like a great white cone, as it was, its rose canes all 
matted with ice and frills of snow, where 1 was to see the 
buds swell and the roses bloom, and fade, and their leaves 
fall to the ground, that spring time to come. Bloom, fade 
and fall, as I was told my mothah faded and fell, as the grass 
was greenin in the fiels she crossed with fathah and me that 
Chrismas mawnin wadin in the deep snow. Mothah died 
before the buds of May gave full promise of the roses of 
June. She bid goodby to the girls and the boys, and fathah, 
as she set in her chair at the ole stone hearth side, not for- 
gittin as she passed away to send me a kiss. 

“They laid her beneath the grass roots, below the past 
wintah's snow line, in the Maashall cullud folks berryin ground 
on the ole home place with the first unrollin of the hickory 
bud leaves that same spring fathah give me away. 

“Fathah and his offerin went up the wide stone walk as I 
have said. He stopped at the foot of the stone steps of the 
side porch, cap in hand, waitin to be invited to come in the 
big house as he knew Kunnel Maashall was spectin him to 
call as was the custom of his ole men on Chrismas mawnin 
when there was always a kind word from the Kunnel for 
them, and something more substantial to take. The offerin 
was standin out in the snow by the summah house holdin on 
to his cloze bunnel, and lookin with starein eyes at all the 
wondahful things he was seein, when, whiz went a snow ball 
close to one of his black ears, and down went his bunnel in 
the snow, as he jumped aside as. Whiz anothah ball zipped 
his ear and past his cheek, striking father in the back, then 
jess as the black boy jumped back anothah ball grazed his 
cold nose, and zip anothah took him on his shouldah, throwin 
the cold snow into his face, when anothah snow ball pressed 
hard, whackin the side of the black boy’s cap fell in the 
snow at his feet, and a laffin, bright eyed rosy cheeked white 
boy threw his arms around the black boy and down went the 


120 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS. 


white boy and the black boy into the snow, rollin ovah and 
ovah’ the white boy comin out on top. 

“There was anothah struggle in the snow, when ovah went 
the white boy hisself, yelpin, face down into the snow, with 
the black boy on top, and holdin the white boy down fast as 
he could, and jess then the house doah opened, and Kunnel 
Maashall hisself said to the black man standin out there 
watchin the fight, but afeard to help his offerin to stay on 
top. ‘Why Josiah Maashall, well, raly ole man. I'm mighty 
glad to see you this Chrismas mawnin, sholy, you always 
come to see me on Chrismas, dont you Siah, why you come 
right in sah! come right in! you and your mastah were boys 
togethah on this ole plantation, when fathah and his men 
were clarein the place, come right in.’ 

“While Kunnel Maashall was welcomin my fathah, the fight 
in the snow went on, sometimes the black boy would scuff ul 
out of the snow and be on top, and sometimes the white boy. 
By the time fathah had follered the Kunnel into his open 
doah, the boys were Jess great balls of snow theyselves, but 
the white boy for a finish was settin down hard on top of 
the black boy. That meetin in the snow was the first meetin 
of the young mastah John Clay Maashall, with the black boy 
who was to be his close companion and best friend, and who 
was to care for him as long as he lived, and in whose arms 
he was to die, on a fiel of battle, in a stranger land, far away 
from his loved ones at home. When the snow ball fightin 
and the wallerin was all ovah, and a black woman had 
breshed the boys nice and clean and made them shake hands 
and promise to be good friends and they could be presented 
to Kunnel Maashall in the big room, the white boy picked up 
the black boy’s cloze bunnel, and togethah the boys went into 
the Kunnel’s library room to be present at the sacrafice 
fathah was to make. 


CHAPTER II. 

THE DEACON AND THE LAWD^S CONTRAC IS CON- 
SUMATED. 

i ^ i\/f Y fathah was there, bowin to the Kunnel. He stood 
cap in hand twistin and twirlin the worn ole rab- 
bit fur about, as he tried hard as he could to swaller the 
big lump that would keep risin in his throat, and to tell the 
Kunnel how long he had been a Baptis deacon on the ole 
home place as the Kunnel knode, and too, how long he had 
been prayin for stainin grace for that casion, jess sich grace as 
Abrahamfone time had given to him, and a Baptis deacon 
sholy should have all the time he reckoned, and that, he had 
come to toller the zample of good Fathah Abraham, who his- 
self , was a membah of the Baptis chuch, but he wasn't pow- 
f ul sartin about Sarah, his wife, for, for, and right there fathah 
stopped short off and choked down, for he couldn't think of 
a single word more he had been so long prayin about and 
gittin ready to say. Fathah kept right on twirlin his ole rab- 
bit fur cap, and chokin hisself like mothah, bowed his head, 
and sputtered out some more about Sarah's boy, and about 
the lam that got fast in the thawn bush by the house, he did, 
and squeezin his chin with his long black fingahs, said, Sarah's 
boy was a big boy, and all the pore woman had, while his 
wife Letty's boy, was lill, and of cose he knode he was black 
as he could be and worth only about fifty dollahs, he reckon- 
ed, and that Letty had seven more at the patch, sides all the 
girls, and, and, and the ole Kunnel laffed and said he knode 
all about it hisself, and callin me and his own boy to him 
patted us on the head lookin into ouah mouthes to see if the 
colts were of the same age, Kunnel Maashall then turnin to 

121 


122 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


fathah said, ‘I spose you have come to give the boy tome for 
a Chrismas giff, but you havn’t said so, still I will take him, I 
need anothah lill boy of my own to play about the house and 
give my othdh boy a tussel in the snow/ Fathah all the 
time bowin and sayin, ‘yes mastah, yes sah, that's jess what I 
was goin to remahk myself.' Kunnel Maashall then rung his 
bell, and when the white capped, white haired housekeepah 
cone in, he said, ‘Show A ant Letty and Josiah into the wait- 
in room and they'll stay to dinnah to-day.' But my fathah 
who had swallered his lump and found his voice by that time, 
splained that his ole wife bein porely like, herself, this wintah, 
had gone back home walkin in the snow. A^hen the Kunnel 
noiicin that the deacon's eyes were fixed on the decantah of 
home made apple jack and honeycomb and the white sugah 
and the glasses on the sideboard, he sentjthe housekeepah for 
his house man, Lemuel Maashall, and said, ‘Lemuel, you git 
some white honey out of the last summah's combs that we 
took from the gums in the apple orchard, and a spoon, take 
my visitah to the big cellah, show him the tapped barle of 
apple jack weall made five years ago, give him a glass all by 
hisself, take his bridle off and turn him in through the bars. 
1 reckon the ole man wont drink more than he wants, Lem- 
uel, but you leave the bars down, do you hear, and keep an 
eye on h'm ca^ionaliy. You wont dare forgit to watch the 
baiies spiget will you Lemuel 

“Soon as fathah, bowin hisself out of the Kunnel's big 
room, had, follerin Lemuel gone way, the white boy toted 
the black boy and his bunnel to his own room at the end of 
the big hall upstairs, where the lill bed stood at the foot of 
the big bedstid, where the boys were to sleep, and play, and 
fight, aftah ole mistus, the white boy's mothah, had heard us 
say our prayers at night, and had tucked us both into ouah 
own places, leavin us her blessin, as long as we two were 
boys, and until we were grown up men. 

“Late that evenin, 1 remembah, jess as the sun was goin 


THE DEACON AND THE LAWD’S CONTRAC IS CONSUMATED 123 

down behind the mountains of white clouds stretched across 
the snowy fiels above the patch, where was mothah's house, 
and I had been long enough away from her and had begun to 
cry to go home, we boys, tired of play on the soff cahpets, 
were lookin out of an upstairs windah, the black boy was be- 
ginning to cry again for his mothah, when the white boy 
showed him the ships in the sky as they went sailin by. 

“When fathah and the Kunnel’s man Lemuel went walkin 
down the big stone walk by the summah house, Lemuel was 
sortah stiddyin fathah as they shuffled along. He took fath- 
ah to the big white gate down at the lane and as he bowed 
him away, ana helpin him through, closed the gate behind 
him, we heard Lemuel say, ‘Yes, yes, Uncle, weall at the big 
house knows you is mighty hefty at a raisin and kin run 
fastah than any ole black man on the place, of cose we do, 
but its a cold frosty wintah evenin, it is, and nobody wants to 
run races in the deep snow, you k^now. You bettah go home 
now, ole man, you had, and you be sure to come back and 
drink that apple jack barle dry sometime. Its mighty nice to 
take with white honey, of cose, but rathah hefty to tote aftah 
the takin. You can’t quite finish it to-day by your own self 
you know, and the sun’s goin down, now, good evenin ole 
man, dont you low the white ovahseah to see you deacon, 
for he might take you in, ha! ha! ha! take you in till mawnin, 
he might. Now go on ole man and dont you nevah quile 
down side of some ole rail fence to rest in the snow, good by 
sah, good by, many returns.’ 

“Then fathah rathah onstiddy like, hisself, tried to re-open 
the gate Lemuel had closed, callin, “Lety! oh Letty!’ but 
mothah nevah heard him, she had gone away nevah to re- 
turn to that gate. 

“The last we boys see of fathah that Chrismas day, for 
which he had been prayerfully waitin through the years past, 
he was tryin to go home through the big grass fiel, and vain- 


124 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


ly tryin to walk in his tracks of the mawniii in the deep snow, 
but goin wide of the mark, spite of all he could do, he would 
leave the centah of the fiel, go to the snowy vine covered 
fence row climb around the fence stakes, stumble ovah the 
snowy grass tufts scarein droves of birds, red, gray and brown 
that had waited all day to see him go home. Fathah had 
kept his vow, he had paid the price, for, though the birds 
had not heard it, it had been settled, that the lill black boy 
they see goin with the ole folks in the mawnin, was now lost 
to them, and was nevah to return to his mothah's home at 
the Maashall patch, for a single night aftah that Chrismas 
day as long'as he lived. For, as 1 have said, mothah died sit- 
tin by her fireside where the kitties used to play, she did, jess as 
the crocus buds all ready to burst into blooms rivalin the 
white snow, were pushin their way through the frozen ground 
in the snow rifts on the sunny side of that ole summah 
house, she did. • 


CHAPTER III. 


THEY FOUND HER ON THE GROUND AMONG THE 
CROCUS BLOOMS. 

i i \ A / IT'H the comin, of the crocus flowahs went my 
▼V mothah's soul to heaven. And too, with their 
comin, come to the Maashall home from heaven a wee, pink 
faced, blue eyed baby girl, they found her out on the frozen 
ground among the crocus blooms jess where the angels left 
her they said. She was layin on a pillow of frost-trimmed 
snow they said. They bunneled her in soflf pink ribbon-trim- 
med woolen wraps soon as they could fetch her in the house, 
and laid her to sleep, and grow, and soon to crow, in the big 
wood cradle mothah Maashall her own self was rocked in. 
Laid he»* there for the lill black boy from the patch to whissel 
red bird songs to, and rock, and nod, and rock, long as he 
could keep awake, all that spring and su mmah time aftah 
they said my mothah was dead. And so Clarrisy, for that 
was her name in heaven, had come to ouah house, and the 
next cold wintah, ceptin when asleep or playin with the white 
boy, 1 rocked baby Clarrisy in the big wood cradle, and sung 
the pretty baby songs the dinin room girls and the nurse 
taught me, and then baby Clarrisy, she begin to sing and 
play herself, and one day, I remembah, she climbed dare out 
of the cradle among the soff cahpet flowahs on the floah, and 
she jess wouldn’t stay in that cradle when awake, she wouldn’t, 
spite of all I could do. That baby girl Clarrisy was one of 
the Maashall fambly, she was, from the time the crocus 
flowahs bloomed the spring mothah died, through all the 
fated years to come I am to tell youall about, until broken 
hahted, worn and tired waitin for her young husband, who 
nevah come back to her, least in this world, she went to sleep 
nevah to wake on earth, and we laid the sweet angel away, 
O, dear! O dear! We laid the angel away. 


CHAPTER IV. 

AND SO THE HAPPY YEARS WENT BY. 

C t A ND SO the happy years went by in that sweet home, 
nevah dreamin about the awful years to come, and 
the changes they would make. O dear! O dear! The big 
wood cradle that was made to rock ole mistus in, and that had 
in time rocked her babies to sleep finally, had been put away 
for many years. Baby Clarrisy, long ago tumblin out of it, 
had grown to be a young woman. She had gone from home 
to school, and returned a graduate. She was loved by all. 

“Her brothah, John Clay Maashall, and the black boy who 
once whisseled bird songs and stood on his head to make 
Baby Clarrisy crow and laff and clap her chubby hands, were 
men grown now. Her brothah, in company with his own 
black man, had finished at a military school in North Carlina, 
as he said, preparin to raise mules and hemp on the ole 
Maashall lands in Kaintucky, and he too, with his boy Josiah, 
his Chrismas giff, had come home and settled down to his 
supposed life work raisin mules. 

“Durin the chillens school years, though, seems we nevah 
noticed it at all, Kunnel and Mistus Maashall, and all the chil- 
lens and the cullud folks on the ole Maashall place weregrow- 
in oldah. 

“Long ago my fathah had made his very last visit to the 
barle of apple jack in Kunnul Maashall’s cellah, Chrismas 
mawnins, and had follered dear mothah, now only a memory, 
to his rest. 

“The boys we once left biddin us good by as we trudged 
away from the patch in the snow, and all the girls who shared 
their maple sugah with fathah’s offerin that last mawnin at 
126 


AND SO THE HAPPY YEARS WENT BY 


127 


home, now good, likely fiel hands, and mothah's and fathah's 
were among the best people livin on the ole Maashall place. 
They had all married at home as ole Kunnel Maashall wanted 
them to do, and in his ole age were his great dependence and 
among his most trusted people. 

‘The nearest neighbors to the MaashalPs were, and had al- 
ways been, the Jacksons. They too, had come from ole Vir- 
ginia in airly days, and the white folks bein managers, and 
havin brought all their cullud famblies with them to the 
new country, Kaintucky, they helped take the huntin ground 
land from the Injuns, and dared it for plowin as the Maash- 
alPs had done, and so, the Maashalls and the Jacksons had, 
durin all these years from the first settlements in the woods 
of Kaintukcy, been neighbors and friens. 

“When John Clay Maashall and me was ridin fine young 
horses all ovah the blue grass country, aftah comin from col- 
lege, the Injuns now all gone, visitin all the fine young ladies, 
and me carin for the horses while Mastah cared only for the 
girls, the Jackson cullud folks claimed and the Maashall black 
people were ready to low, that all the raly fine fahmin and 
grass lands outside of the Maashall fences in Kaintucky be- 
longed to ole Cappen Jackson hisself, or soon would be his- 
sen. And that when the Maashalls wanted to build stake 
and ridahd fences around more land than they then owned, 
so as to have good workin places for all their black folks, 
fast as they married and increased, for of cose a Maashall 
would increase, they would have to go beyond the Jackson 
fiels to git it, no more land jinin the Maashalls was for sale. 
Seemed it all belonged to the Jacksons, least you would have 
thought so, gemmelmen, when meetin a Jackson cullud man 
witn his mules in the big road in them days, and Cappen 
Jackson had no bnd for sale. 

“The Jacksons were money makers, they bred mules, cat- 
tle and hogs. They raised negroes, hemp, wheat and tobacco, 
all for sale ceptin the negroes. And then they bred more 
stock and fiel hands, and sold more hemp, tobacco and wheat, 


128 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS. 


and bought more land, but with all the sellin, Cappen Jack- 
son nevah spent money ceptin for land. The Jackson cullud 
folks were always dressed good and warm, and had plenty to 
eat as the lands kept on spreadin, but one day, the ole Cappen 
whose good wife had been long dead, leavin her baby, an 
only girl, for her cullud people to raise, stopped breedin stock, 
and fiel hands, and raisin wheat, prizin tobacco and hecklin 
hemp, watchin the markets for the good time to sell and to 
buy, for he rode out onto his grass land to cut out some fat 
steers for market and fell from his ole saddle horse to the 
grass among the cattle, and when his black boy got to where 
he was layin aftah racin his young horse way across a mile 
of grass land, he found the ole Cappen layin dead, the cattle 
gathahd all about him starein with wonderin eyes, for they 
had nevah seen the Cappen lite from his horse among them 
before and they knowed him all their lives. 

“Kunnel Maashall was powful sorry when Cappen Jackson 
died, for, though it seemed the Cappen was always a lill ahead 
of him when any nearby land was to be bought, or a fambly 
of good fiel hands were for sale in the neighborhood to keep 
them from bein carried to the sugah and cotton states of the 
South, knowin they nevah would see their ole home again, 
and had about bought the Kunnel in, ceptin for the big roads 
surroundin him, yet, he was a kind neighbor, and they had 
been boys and men on neighborin lands all their lives. 

“Cappen Jackson had nevah married aftah his young wife 
died leavin her baby girl to his cullud people’s care, but he 
lived with his cullud folks at home until he was quite an 
ole man. It was found at his death that Betsy, his daughtah, 
now grown ole herself, had been willed all her fathah’s lands, 
his people and his othah property in house, barn and fiel. 

“It had been long known that ‘ole Betsy Jackson’ the 
neighbors begin to call her, was, next to her fathah, the Cap- 
pen, the keenest figgerer for anything sire went aftah, in the 
neighborhood of Plsgah Baptis chuch to which she was a de- 
voted membah, though jess set a lill aside as bein out of the 


AND SO THE HAPPY YEARS WENT BY 129 

market herself, by the youngah wimin and gemmelmen. So 
when Mistiis Betsy owned the Jackson lands aftah the Cap- 
pen’s death, everybody said that the Maashalls would nevah 
buy the balance of the blue grass country while she lived and 
that much was settled, less they bought it from her, and she 
nevah sold land. Everybody was sure that Mistus Betsy bein 
a very ole girl when her fathah died leavin everything to 
her, she would nevah marry, and that, too, was settled. But 
aftah the Cappen died it was found though Miss Betsy was 
rathah oldish like, that as soon as it was known all of the 
many good fahms Cappen use to ride ovah in his saddle were 
now her own, and that she held in her hand all the pussonal 
property, as well, seemed like all the marryin men, young 
and ole, in all the country round wanted to git hold of that 
hand, they did. So, though for years, young men had done 
forgot to call at the Jackson house to see Miss Betsy, now 
that ole Cappen was gone, his ridin saddle empty, prancin 
horses totin the finest young ridahs in all the country round, 
went skippin up the locus tree lane, jess to inquiah aftah the 
health of the lady of the house you know, and to remind her 
of the high esteem their own famblies always had entertained 
for the ole Jackson fambly. And now that Cappen Jackson 
was dead, the cullud folks on the Jackson place soon see, that 
it took a black boy from the fiel work every good day, carin 
for the horses and the fine rigs of the youngish men, who 
come up the Jackson locust tree lane, and still anothah peart 
young fellow to show his snow white teeth and bow the call- 
in gemmelmen through the lawn gate, among the cedah trees, 
to the ole Jackson mansion's front doah, where the gray 
headed ole housekeepah who was bawn on the place would 
curtesy low to them as she invited them in. A cullud girl 
would take their hats and summah ovahcoats, and that done, 
anothah house girl show them into the big room, where an- 
other bright cullud girl would ask them to be seated where 
was the big side bode and the cut glass bottles, the glasses 
and the sweetnin. That was the room where Cappen Jack- 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


130 

son used to plan to git more land, and with it more fiel hands. 

“The callers were mighty welcome to everybody in the big 
house, ceptin perhaps the shades of Cappen Jackson, which, 
though the house girls had not seen them, setin at the Cap- 
pen’s ole writin desk, sence his funeral day, they raly spected 
they might be there at any time, but though on the watch fo^ 
thejole man’s return as a spirit, the house girls served the 
peach and honey, and the Cappen’s stock of bourbon, freely 
to the guests, probably relyin for his approval of their course, 
on the ole man’s known hospitality to his guests while he was 
yet in the flesh. 

“And so the callers, youngish and oldish, rich and pore, 
were entertained until seen by the lady of the house. Miss 
Betsy, who was heir to all the dead Cappen’s wealth, who 
graciously bowin would enter into conversation for a brief 
moment, then withdraw, bowin h erself out of their presence. 
The house girls would then get the callers’ wraps, their hats, 
their canes, and the caller on Mistus Betsy Jackson havin 
tasted of the oldest bourbon in the cellah, and havin paid his 
respects to the heiress, would retire wonderin what impression 
he had made on the owner of the lands and the cullud folks. 
A second, and even a third visit would find the caller quite as 
much at sea as to his standin with the owner of the Jackson 
acres as before. So it was known far and near that the cita- 
del of wealth was impregnable, that she who commanded it 
had no desire, bein old enough herself to assume responsibil- 
ity, to share her enjoyment of the right to govern, with an- 
other, and would remain haht whole and fancy free. Mistus 
Betsy Jackson had set her foot down rale hard, she had, and 
declared to gracious, that nevah, no nevah, would she marry, 
she wouldn’t, but would live among her cullud people on the 
ole home place, increasin them and the lands fast as they 
would and could, as her fathah had done before her, and she 
would live for the Baptis chuch of which everybody knode 
she was a leadin membah, and take her reward in heaven. 
But still the suitors for Betsy Jackson’s hand and for a share 
in the property left her by her fathah, rode up locus tree lane, 
were admitted inside the mansion doah and royally entertain - 
at the side bode, the Cappen dyin had left with its contents 
behind him. They evidently were comin spectin Mistus Bet- 
sy Jackson to approve their suits, and change her mind, the 
very thing she did do in the end. 


CHAPTER V. 

THE MAN FROM MAINE. 

^ i A MONO the youngish fellows and the oldish widow- 
ers who crowded the Jackson lane, sympathizin 
with Miss Betsy, his only heir aftah the Cappen, her fathah, 
died, was a young man, a carpenter, workin at his trade for 
the f ahmers buildin fine tobacco barns and houses. The young 
man was from the state of Maine. It was the same young 
man from the free niggah State of Maine that everybody in 
the Baptis chuch, cludin all the young scapergraces laflfed at 
when he was first seen visitin the Jackson place, and was 
known to be settin around in the shade with proud Miss Bet- 
sy Sunday aftahnoons when there was no preachin, or car- 
ryin her to preachin Sunday nights. It was the young car- 
penter from Maine who made the ole watah mill, youall see 
bumin when you was here with Linken's ahmy, jess turn 
ovah a new leaf in its history, big as its history was, and tote 
all its customahs’ cawn grists up stairs itself without no help 
from the tired black man that brought it, and who was in a 
hurry to git to the mill dam pond to ketch a string of mud 
cats to carry home with him soon as his grist was ground. 

‘‘Aftah the man from Maine got through with the insides 
of that watah mill, all anybody's black man had to do was to 
set his bags jess inside the mill doah and then dump them in 
a hole as though the yallah cawn was goin down splash 
among the watahs undah the mill floah, while the mil- 
lah set on a bag by the cawn stone smokin and restin his 
lame back, and the customahs set around noddin, if they 
didn't care to fish, waitin their turn to dump their grain into 
the hole cut through the floah, mighty glad the hard work of 
goin to the mill or aftah they got there, was all ovah. For 
thanks to the Yankee from Maine, there was no totin of great 
131 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


132 

bags of shelled cawn up the back srairs of that watah mill any 
more, jess to shovel it down again, for Yankee Quigley had 
changed all that, he made the mill receive the cawn at the 
mill doah the wagon drivah helpin, and then the mill done all 
the rest itself. 

“Well, it was the young man from Maine, Mr. Quigley, 
who knew how to make money buildin houses and tobacco 
bahns and bridges. He, who had shown hisself to be of so 
much rale service to all the people, who, like their fathahs be- 
fore them, were bledged to go to mill, who jined the Baptis 
chuch when there wasn't any revival goin on atall, was bap- 
tized, and of cose saved, and as soon as he was, married Miss 
Betsy Jackson jess to help her care for her fahmin lands, as 
she said, and as it afterwerds appe-ired, at the same time mar- 
ried all the lands, and cullud people, and stock on the Jack- 
son state besides. 

“As soon as Mr. Quigley was married he stopped buildin 
bridges and houses and fixin griss mills so they would do all 
the work for their customers, he did, and sold his chist of 
cahpenter tools, and took charge of all the Jackson lands and 
property hisself, and by th.' time Mistus Betsy Jackson Quig- 
ley’s girl baby was bawn, he owned more fine carriages, sul- 
kies, horses and hahness, than any gemmelman in all that 
country round, and by everybody was called Sqiah. He 
was called Sqiah only because no man could be a Kunnel in 
Kaintucky, if it was known he was bawn in a free niggah 
state. So the man from Maine was only a Sqiah, Sqiah 
Quigly, not satisfied less he was Kunnel, was soon tryin to 
be the leadin Kaintucky gemmelman ownin race horses in the 
Pisgah neighborhood, and hopin for the promotion so dear to 
Kaintucky hahts, sent his stable of flyers to the Lexington 
race cose. But it was soon whispahd that probably Sqiah 
Quigley, the Yankee from Maine, who married Betsy Jack- 
son aftah he was baptized, knew more about makin watah 
mills carry their own grain upstairs sose to save the millah’s 
backs, than he did about racin mattahs, or the breedin of like- 


THE MAN FROM MAINE 133 

ly fiel hands, and it was beginnin to be said, The Yankee's 
race horses are jess fast enough to come undah the wire a lill 
behind the Tennessee flyers, that's carry in the money away 
from Kaintucky all the time for they left their wings at home/ 

‘‘By that time many of the young black men on the place 
had been taken from the fiels and set to trainin horses for the 
track, some of the ole Jackson people had been sold to get 
money to buy racin horses. Fahmin work dragged, and 
when done at all it was by the failin hands of the oldish men. 

“Blooded colts, stid of fat cattle and black hogs now nipped 
the blue grass and the clover blossoms on the ole Jackson 
fiels. Things on the Jackson lands, as well as on the race 
tracks were now goin by chance, and the chances were against 
the lands and the Quigley flyers most every time. So, by 
the time Mistus Betsy Quigley's, use to be Jackson's, girl 
baby was ole enough to go to Harrodsburg to bodin house 
school some of the best lands her careful mothah got from 
her money-makin fathah, had been sold to satisfy racin debts 
of honah, for though the titles of all the lands were in Mis- 
tus Betsy's name, she allers signed the deeds and the mort- 
gages to raise money to save her husband's honah. By that 
time the Maashall cullud people who were allers dressed 
cheap because they weaved their own cloth, and clean, be- 
cause they had a change to wash and darn, were enjoy in Min - 
istah Samuel Jackson’s sermons Sundays in the cullud Baptis 
meetin place in the ole Jackson wood, and findin time to laff 
at the sorry lookin Quigley's, use to be Jackson’s black peo 
pie, now wearin their ragged ole cloze and standin round like 
pore strangahs on their own land, cause about all that used to 
be their land ceptin the ole Jackson home place now belong- 
ed to the Maashall's. It was for want of these lands, now 
loit, that many of the ole time Jackson cullud famblies had 
been sold away from friens and what they had allers known 
as home. While othahs, not havin work on the ole place, 
were hiahd out among the neighbors. It was from out that 
black cloud in the Quigley affairs that my first trouble ceptin 
mothah's coffin and callin aftah me at the big gate in the 
snow, and her death, when the flowah buds were swellin in 
the spring, darkened my life. It was from undah that black 
cloud that then begin to cast its shadow cross my life, that I 
was compelled to drag out the speriences that 1 am to present 
to youall in the life story of Melissy and the chillens. 


CHAPTER VI. 


MELJSSY JACKSON, THE WHITE MAN’S BURDEN 
BEARER. 

t i IWf ELISSY Jackson, Mistus Betsy Jackson Quigley’s 
AVa (jinin room girl, the very blackest girl on the ole 
Jackson home place, promised me one evenin as we set undah 
the cedah trees in front of the ole Jackson house, jess as the 
Ovahseah’s bell was ringin all the black people to their beds, 
to someday be my wife. That was to say she would be my 
wife providin the Quigley housekeepah could spare her 
sometimes, and the Quigleys and the Maashall famhlies 
would consent to the weddin. But of cose the Maashall 
Ovahseah would have to ask the Quigley Ovahseah for the 
girl’s hand, cose he would, for the white ownah of a girl 
nevah would give her to no black man hisself , for the black 
man couldnt hold any property atall in Kaintucky, and aftah 
the girl was given away, in a marriage not to be recorded, 
ceptin on the Ovahseah’s books of account, she, and any 
chillens bawn to her in the married state would still belong to 
the mothah’s ownah same as if the woman was single, so it 
was all a mattah between the white ownahs. That night 
when I got home I carefully tucked John Clay Maashall in 
among the sweet white sheets in our room at the head of the 
stairs where the white boy once toted the black boy’s bunnel 
of cloze. 

“It was the bed 1 aliers tucked him in. ceptin when mothah 
Maashall aftah sayin the nighty and makin us repeat to her 
at least ‘for Jesus sake’, smoothed his pillow herself. 

“Dear ole Mistus Maashall every night to quiet us boys 
down she would come into that room and say a mothah’s 
prayers for her chillens. Well, anyway, that night 1 got 

134 


MELISSY JACKSON, THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN BEARER 135 

home long aftah mothah Maashall had kneeled at her boy's 
bedside, for he was still her only boy, ceptin me. 1 sofly 
tucked John Clay in, and then, not carein to go to my own 
bed, for I wanted to talk to my young mastah, I laid my 
black head close side his golden curls, my black face side his 
white face and whisperin like, said, ‘/Vlastah I want to tell 
you suthin, I do,' and he said, ‘Now go long away with 
yoiiah foolishness, I'm sleepy, sides mothah's done said all 
the prayers for us both, its all done, and its late.' But I 
was thinkin.of Melissy's promise all the time, so I kept right 
on whisperin into his ear, 1 did, and when he dare woke up, 
and begin to lissen, I up and told him all about what a nice 
girl Melissy Quigley Jackson was, and of her sweet promise 
to me. I hardly had time to ask him, to please ask the 
Kunnel, his fathah, to tell his Ovahseah to ask the Quigley 
Ovahseah for the dinin room girl, Melissy, when, ovah I 
went bawdaciously, quilts, pillows, sheets and all, onto the 
floah in a pile, with me undahneath them all, and John Clay 
on top of the pile, jess as he had walloped me in all the nice 
clean beddin cloze many a time since that fight in the snow. 

“Then makin him believe I was dead shore nough, he dug 
me out from undah the pile, and poundin me good cause I 
was dead. He laid me out on the hearth, ‘waitin for the 
berryin', he said, all because I wanted to leave him without 
any wife for hisself, aftah he had tried so hard to find one, 
which of cose he nevah had. 

“Jess as 1 was comin to life ready for a fight, the bedroom 
doah opened a lill and mothah Maashall's sweet voice said: 
‘Be careful boys dont let the Kunnel hear you', then the doah 
closed, 1 come to life, and lockin the doah, we fought it all 
out to a finish, both bein one cullah in the dark, as we had 
done many times before, and in the end, Mastah promised 
me, if I would go to bed, and not beat him any more with 
the feathah bolster, and pillows, he would surrendah and ask 
the ole Kunnel to ask the Ovahseah, the very next day that 


136 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS. 

come along. In the mawnin when 1 woke there we both lay 
rolled up in the sheets, me ovah undah the windah on the 
floah, John Clay up next to the red painted hearth with one 
of mothah Maashall’s brass and irons undah his head for a 
pillow, sound asleep. 

“That very day as he had promised me to do, John Clay 
asked the Kunnel’s help to git the Quigley dinin room girl 
for his boy Josiah. But the ole Kunnel detestin the Yankee 
from Maine, sot his foot down hard and refused his consent, 
sayin, he had more nice girls on his lands, all raised to be 
good workers, and good mothahs besides, than he knode 
sometimes what to do with cause he hated to see his wimin 
workin in the fiels like a common Quigley wench was com- 
pelled to do. Besides, it wouldn’t be so many years, he 
thought, before all the Quigleys, white and black, were gone 
from the neighborhood, moved away, or sold away, one. 

“The Kunnel advised his son to say to me, if 1 wanted to 
scape trouble long as 1 lived, and spected to sorter love a wife 
aftah 1 got one, and to keep her as though she raly belonged 
to me, and not to a mastah, at least till he sold her, to let the 
Quigley girl alone, and take one of his own dinin room helps. 
Then litin a cigah, he stormed at John Clay, sayin he nevah 
had been able to hold us boys down, nohow, at school or at 
home, and he sposed he nevah would be, and we would have 
to do as we pleased, as we always had done, whethah or no, 
and take all the consequences ouah own selves. ‘Butremerh- 
bah,’ said ole Mastah to John Clay, ‘if the Quigley girl gits 
youall into trouble some day because of the breakin up of 
that fambly of whites, and she has to be sold to pay debts of 
honah among Kaintucky gemmelmen, youall will have to git 
out of it all the best you kin, so there.’ It was some mighty 
long days to me before Mastah John Clay told me what his 
fathah had said and though 1 often met Melissy undah the cedah 
trees aftah her day’s work was done, I havin a neighborhood 


MELISSY JACKSON, THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN BEARER \}7 
pass in my pocket all the time allowin me to go around the 
neighborhood night or day, 1 couldn't tell her a word about 
ouah weddin day or if the ovahseah on the Quigley place 
would give his consent atall. So Melissy cried about it for fear 
some of the whites nevah would consent, because the Quig- 
ley's were known to be gittin porer every day now, and so 1 
was compelled to leave the girl in tears. But one day, with- 
out even lettin me know the result of his askin the ole Kun- 
nel, Mastah John Clay to be neighborly, and as he said to me, 
for the fun of askin some body's consent to many, a thing 
he nevah had seriously thought of doing before, called at 
the ole Jackson mansion leavin me and the horses out at the 
locust lane gate, and hisself, rogue that he was, actually with- 
out seein the Quigley overseah atall about the mattah, went 
in the house and asked Mistus and Sqiah Quigley for the 
hand of their girl Melissy in honorable marriage, he called it, 
jess as though she was a white girl. And when they spressed 
their sprise that he should ask for Melissy, he splained that he 
wanted her for one of the Maashall boys, of cose, but that he 
would reserve the right to say which one of them would 
draw the lucky numbah. Then the thought comin to him 
that the Sqiah wanted money, bad, he offered to buy the girl 
for any amount a jury of the neighborin plantahs would set 
as her fair market worth, and offered his bank check for five 
hundred dollahs to start with. When he made that proposi- 
tion, Sqiah Quigley held out his hand to receive the check, 
but Mistus Betsy Quigley pushed his hand away sayin the 
girl belonged to her and couldn't be spared from the house, 
and besides it would be bettah to keep the girl as Kaintucky 
law gave the chillens to the ownahs of the mothah, but it was 
agreed as she wouldn't agree to sell the girl at that time, the 
Maashalls, should they elude to sell the black boy, were to 
give the Quigleys the first chance to buy him, and the Quig- 
leys would give the same chance to the Maashalls to buy the 
girl, and that in eathah case the sale should elude the chillens. 


138 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

if any. So Mastah John Clay was bledged to thank the 
Quigleys for their promise, and consent for him to name a 
man for the girl Melissy. And so he bowed hisself out of 
the house and away among the cedah trees to the gate where 
1 was waitin with the horses for him, mighty anxious all the 
time and watchin his every spression on his face as he come 
to me hopin to see he had been successful, and the girl was to 
be, if not mine, the Maashalls, who would give her to me. 
As we rode through the locus tree lane, he said, ‘well, ole 
man, the girls mine by promise at least as 1 couldn’t buy her, 
1 will giye her to any of the Maashall boys she sends me 
word she wants. I’m not so very sure she will choose you, 
and you may not git her aftah all. 


CHAPTER VII. 


ORANGE BLOSSOMS. THE WHITE MAN’S BURDEN. 

THE THORN. 

i i T^HE very next Sunday, Josiah Maashall, andMelissy 
^ Quigley, use to be Jackson, stood before all the 
cullud Quigleys and Maashalls, and my young mastah, John 
Clay Maashall at the Baptis meetin out in the Jackson sugah 
camp among the sugah maple trees, and Melissy’s fathah and 
her mothah. Aunt Polly, handed to Ministah Samuel Jackson, 
now Quigley, the Quigley overseahs’ written permit for Me- 
lissy to marry a Maashall boy, to be named by Mastah John 
Clay Maashall on the spot. 

“Ministah Samuel takin the papah put on his green specks 
tyin the long tapes behind his head so they wouldn’t fall off, 
that he might be able to see the writin, of cose everybody 
knode he couldn’t read a word, with or without glasses. 

“Then the good ole ministah who had married all the 
blacks on the ole Jackson place for the last forty years or 
more, that is who were married at all, for Christianty didn’t 
apply to them in that pahticulah, aftah huntin in his coat tail 
pockets and his ole shiny hat for a handkercher, not findin 
one used the cuff of his janes coat, and very careful like, 
looked ovah the upsidedown papah he held in his hand as 
bowin low he said, ‘that’s all cawdin to law and the postels I 
reckon, but for feah my ole eyes may be stakened, Mastah 
John Clay Maashall, will you bledge an ole Baptis ministah 
of the Lawd by readin this here paragraph aloud?’ So Mas- 
tah, who was standin in the crowd watchin jess as miserable 
as could be because 1 was to be seperated from him, heaftah- 
wards said, took the papah, and turnin it right end up, read 
from it the consent of the Quigley overseah to the girl’s mar- 

139 


140 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


ryin, providin young Kunnel Maashall should name the 
Maashall boy. 

“Then John Clay lookin straight at me said, ‘as 1 cant take 
the girl myself and am forced to loose my ole friend Josiah 
some time at best, as some girl will take him, havin looked 
around among the boys, 1 have decided on Josiah Maashall to 
take the place of husband to the girl.’ Ministah Samuel now 
bowin low to Mastah John Clay, put my right hand in 
Melissy’s trimbly hand, then he hunted for his handkercher 
again and not findin it, as before, used his cuff, and said, the 
ovahseah and all the white folks who, cordin to the scripchahs 
of the Lawd own this man and this woman by divine appint- 
ment, and their chillens aftah them, havin given their con- 
sent to the marryin as tested by the ovahseah’s pe .nit, now 
in the name of the ownahs of this man and woman, and the 
Lawd, 1 declah you two cullud pussons, Josiah Maashall 
and Melissy Quigley, use to be Jackson, man and wife, for 
bettah or worse, cawdin to the laws of Kaintucky, and holy 
scripchahs — foohdination. Now what Gawd and the Biptis 
chuch jines togethah, let no man, less he is the ownah, put 
assundah.’ 

The first to shake our hands and wish us long life and hap- 
piness, was my young Mastah, John Clay Maashall, my boy 
and manhood frlen. As he looked in my face, a lone tear 
went coursin down his cheek, the first 1 evah caused him to 
shed in sorrow. 

“Gemmelmen, 1 want to say right here, speakin about sor- 
row and tears, while that weddin of two pore slaves was fol- 
lered by many long, dreary years of seperation and of tears, 
yet, not one sorrow or tear was that pore slave wife evah the 
cause of. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

THE PASSING OF THE OLD MINISTER. THE COM- 
ING OF THE NEW. 

OU will now see how changed was my life and how 
I dependent we all were on the fortunes of the man 
from Maine. We had been permitted by ouah ownahstocall 
each othah husband and wife. It was only a form, for there 
were no marriage laws for cullud people 
‘'My so called wife was to stay in her place in the Jackson 
house dinin room where she had been sence she was a small 
girl and her mothah had been before her, while my home 
was still to be with the Maashalls. We lived that way for 
two years, when Melissy went to stay with her mothah at the 
cullud quarters of the Quigley black folks. 

“Melissys goin to her Mothah was like this: The new 
Baptis ministah hearin the Lawd's call and thinkin it was for 
him, a common mistake in these days, too, was comin to Pis- 
gah chuch to preach. He was a young man. He was not 
married hisself, so were not a lot of the youngish sistahs in 
that meetin. He was jess from school. Of cose young 
preaehahs like young doctahs must have wives of their own, 
else the Lawd of heaven and the wimin of earth wont think 
to call them when needed, but will send for some 
one who has. The young preachah who was to crowd 
the ole preachah out of a comfortable nest in the 
hahts of the Pisgah people, and their meal barles, was to be 
given a chance to meet the youngish single Baptis sistahs, all 
of whom were anxious to welcome him, that was the reason 
the Lawd called him to take the ole man's place. So it was, 
the sistahs were invited to drink stoah tea with Mistus Quigley 
on the casion of his comin. 


141 


142 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS. 


“The racin season bein ovah Sqiah Quigley was to be at 
home and meet his new ministah at the tea. Drinkin stoah 
tea was one of the monthly duties of the chuch sciety for the 
relievin of distressed mothahs and their chillens. That is, if 
the mothah belonged to the Baptis chuch. So at the next 
meetin for the relievin of good Baptis sistahs, tea was to be 
drunk, and as the new ministah was to be present a turkey 
would be cahved if the Quigley black folks could find 
anothah turkey strayin round the ole roosts on the Jackson 
place, to cahve. So the Quigleys had been huntin the turkey 
high and low night times and day times for a week, and fixin 
for the tea, wonderin how turkey, good and brown turkey, 
with plenty of nice dressin, would tase once more, and won- 
erin how the new ministah would look, and if his hair was 
black or brown or red, and if he was tall like a rale Kaintuck- 
yan, and if he was already gaged to be married, and if not, 
why then, which one of the membahs of the chuch sciety he 
would like the best, for of cose he would like all some. And 
too, there was wonderin among the house servants how the 
ole white ministah felt about the loosin of his pulpit and his 
livin, slimpsy as it had been. And now that he was too ole 
to teach a school for rich white folks, and there bein no 
schools among the pore whites to teach, no more than schools 
for the blacks, the wonder was what the ole broken down 
prechah would do for bread, and how his fambly of grown 
up, unmarried daughtahs would manage to live, sayin nothin 
about dressin fine and holdin their heads up among the quality, 
for like them, they knode nothin about housekeepin, ceptin 
as a black woman done all the work. 

“All this the house servants knode, and so were sorry for 
the ole preachah, who had been kind to them in sickness, and 
sence they begin to get pore aftah the man from Maine come 
on the Jackson place, and now as they were havin a hard 
time to live theyselves, sayin nothin about the rags they 
wore, they remembahin how kind Cappen Jackson used to 


PASSING OF THE OLD MINISTER. COMING OF THE NEW 143 

be to the ole preachah of zion the young man jess from 
school was to replace knowin he would have less than they to 
do with, when his pay stopped, for a black man was of more 
value in Kaintucky than a pore white, they were all the 
more sorry for him. 

‘‘On one of my visits to the Quigley mansion Melissy 
showed me her nice red ribbons and her snow white dress all 
trimmed with lace, Mistus Maashall's gift for a weddin present, 
to be first worn when she was married, as white folks were 
married, nevah to be seperated from her husband less by an 
ownah. Melissy was radiant with smiles cause she was to 
wear the sweet dress, and all the pretty ribbons, at the comin 
ministerial tea, she was, and what a triumph ovah the porely 
dressed whites to be there, that would be, and she only a 
black dinin room girl too, and she clapped her hands with 
glee. I think I nevah see my ole wife so happy as she was 
that time, less it was when she got home from Ahkinsaw. 
Of cose, gemmelmen, she is ole now as youall kin see, but 
she was only a girl then. 

“At that time everybody about the Quigley house was 
busy as they could be preparin for the ministerial sciety tea, 
and were nearly ready, ceptin in the ole Jackson kitchen, now 
the Quigleys, but even there, there was lill more to do ceptin 
hunt where the cook would, she couldent scare up no turkey 
goblah atall, and there wasnt a single turkey hen roostin at 
any of the oletime roosts on the place, and the cullud folks 
all knode that to be a fact. I say they all knode it. 

“And all the oleish wimin fiel hands down at the patch 
done, when the question of a turkey roast for the tea come 
up, was to look mighty innocent, and talk about the droves 
of turkeys they used to see settin round on the rail fences, 
and the bushels of sweet potatoes, all for the ketchin, and the 
takin, in dear ole Mistus Jackson's days up at the big house. 

So it was the ole house keepah eluded long with Mistus 
Quigley, that as they were to have a sciety tea, for the ladies 


144 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS. 


of the Baptis chuch and the comin ministah, and as the 
nieetin was to be a strictly religeous affair anyway, and there 
was to be nothin worldly about it, nor any vain show, or 
gluttonous feastin, as turkeys were sortah scase on the place 
that season cause of the rains or some othah cause, they 
would dispense with the nicely browned turkey, they 
would, and bow to the evident leadins of providence along 
with the young ministah, and chicken, they were plenty as 
broodin time bein past, would be good nough. 

‘The day come at last, when the new Ministah was to 
meet the single sistahs of Pisgah Baptis Chuch at the 
Quigleys' at tea, jess a plain religeous tea, that was all it was 
to be. Everything was ready and waitin, cludin cold sliced 
chicken, for the fine folks in the ole Jackson dinin room. 1 
was lowed at that time to peep in and see the pretty sight for 
myself. A long table all covahd with ole Jackson chiny and 
silvah, was stretched the length of the room. Piles and piles 
of Jackson napkins were on the ole side bode among the cut 
glasses Mistus Betsy got from her mothah. The long lace 
curtains, with the Jackson name worked into the lace, were 
hangin at the windahs. 

“Melissy, when the housekeepah left the room, whispered 
to me, that, ‘all the darned and worn napkins had been put 
out of sight, ceptin the holy ones it took for one at each 
plate' and that ‘what was there was all there was left of 
drawers and drawers full, when Mistus Betsy brought her 
into the dinin room as a fill girl.' 

“That evenin, aftah the company had all gathahd in the 
house, and the young ministah had come in the mansion 
leanin on the arm of the ole ministah, Melissy was in the 
girls' room fixin on her own laces and ribbons on her white 
linen dress Mistus Maashall had given her as a weddin present, 
and lookin at herself in a glass, seein she was all ready herself 
for her part in the finest party the ole house had known sence 
Mistus Betsy married the man from Maine and its troubles 


PASSING OF THE OLD MINISTER. COMING OF THE NEW 145 

began. When the housekeepah, a very ole black Jackson 
woman, who had managed the house sence the Cappen’s 
wife died, and who took Melissy from her mothah's cabin 
soon as the chile by high tiptoein could reach plates onto the 
table without breakin too many of them, sent for Melissy to 
come to her room, and said to her: ‘Melissy dear, everything 
is now ready for the ministerial tea isnt it? Are you right 
down sure now there will be white sugah nough in the ole 
silvah fambly sugah bowl to go all round if everybody, cludin 
the ole ministah, for I see hese here, though not spected atall, 
or wanted by the young folks, takes a third cup, of stoah tea, 
Melissy, are you?’ And not stoppin to hear what the girl had 
to say in reply, the ole black woman went right on to say, 
‘Dear me, I well remembah the time before Mistus married 
the Sqiah, I do, when everything was plenty in this house. 
My! there was loaf sugah and Orleans sugah, and sugah 
tree sugah rolled fine, and you nevah see so much maple 
sugah cakes as weall had, and turkeys, great big black turkeys, 
and fat pigs for the dressin and stuffin and roastin. When a 
ministah called on us to stay all night, or a cattle buyer to 
see the stock, a fiah was burnin bright on his hearth airly in 
the mawnin, a boy set noddin, waitin for him to wake, ready 
for to show him the decantah and honey on the sidebode, 
hopin all the time he would leave a lill moisture in the 
glass, and the ministah’s boots all shiny so the boy could 
See his face in them, were ready. We nevah pended on no 
ministerial teas or a ministah comin to the house, to git suth- 
in good to take, or eat, in Cappen Jackson’s livin days, we 
didn’t. To think! A ministerial tea, or any othah kind of a 
tea for Cappen Jackson! Pon my word! The kind his black 
boys set before his visitahs mawnins, with sugah and honey 
to mix into it, was good enough for him. 

“‘Melissy, dear, did you carefully oick out and put away as 
many of the darned and patched napkins as can possibly be 
spared from the table? Are you right down sure that no 


146 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


stitch of damin on the napkins we must use will show so the 
gablin sistahs and the shahp eyes of the young ministah will 
see them? If they do see them, now you mind, every- 
body in the neigborhood, and from txie grocery crossins to 
Harrodsburg will know it, and talkin about the worn out 
Jackson table things, and be sayin we havn't table ware nough 
to set it, and everything clipped and cracked that we do have/ 

“But Melissy assured the house keepah she had sorted as 
many of the darned napkins as could be spared from usinand 
hid them away where they couldn't by any chance be seen. 
When the managin woman said, *dear above knows 1 hope 
the young ministah wont ask for breast of turkey, with jess a 
few spoonsful of dressin, I do, wouldn't that be awful? 
There's nothin but chicken to be sarved, only a few ole 
sheddin hens that quit lay in, they're all nicely biled and 
browned through so they look nice any way, and I hope ten- 
dah, but laws they may be mighty hard on some of the sis- 
tahs' stoah teeth. 

“‘But then the ministah hasn't been preachin round in the 
country long nough to git dare worn out eatin chicken yit. 
He nevah will here at ouah table these days, less the young 
raceah colt Lawd Alexandah were all hopin so much from, 
wins back the money Sqiah has lost and we have the haht to 
set a few hens again. There isnt no turkey, white, black, or 
brown and hardly a roostah crow of mawnins left on the 
place. Of cose the mammys at the patch could tell where 
the last turkey went, if they would, but they wont. Now 
Melissy, my chile, you see, Im not talkin much, I havnt time, 
1 must trapse round lookin aftah things you know, and see if 
alls raly ready for the tea, but before I do go, I've suthin to 
say to you about that nice white dress you stood up in the 
day Masiah John Clay Maashall give you to his boy Josiah, 
and that I see you weaiin now with the white slippahs. Im 
mighty sorry to say it, I am, but Melissy, you wont have to 
wear them this evenin dear, you wont. 


PASSING OF THE OLD MINISTER. COMING OF THE NEW 147 

‘‘'No dear, you’ll not be at the tea, Mistus has said so. 
Your a married woman now, you know, and you’re to be 
scused from service in the dinin room hereaftah. I was young- 
ish myself once I reckon, about fifty-five or sixty years ago, 
I was. 1 nevah had no pretty ribbons or white cotton dress 
or white slippahs them days, my dear, it was tow linen dress- 
es, and weave it your own self, and cowhide shoes made by 
fiel hands aftah the day’s work in the fiels was all done, it 
was. My, but the shoes were nice in the snow, but they 
clamped, clamped through the house and so a house girl went 
bare footed, that saved the shoes. A tow linen dress nevah 
wore out. The girls wore them the year through. But if 
shoes were scace we had plenty of husbands given us by the 
ovahseah, jess as they’s given round now, whethah they were 
wanted or not mosely. Mine were all sold for their mean- 
ness and were carried off south to the sugah and cotton fiels, 
the lazy things, less they runaway from Kaintucky to whdt’s 
called Ohio. Dear, them days are only a remembrance to 
me now, you know, though Mistus reckons I’m not more 
than seventy -five. 

“‘Now that haint so very ole for a cullud woman, is it? I 
dont look it of cose, no more than some of the ladies will 
who will be here to-night settin traps to ketch the youngish 
ministah. Now Melissy, it makes no kind of difference to 
me nor to Mistus Betsy Quigley, use to be Jackson, she said 
as much to me as she watched you rangin the napkins in the 
dinin room awhile ago, that is it makes no difference so long 
as only the famblys here by themselves, for theys all used to 
it, and providin the Sqiah is in Lexington long with his racin 
horses and stable men. But Sqiah is here to meet the minis- 
tah, for you know he is a good Baptis hisself, and sence he 
quit repairin mills, and has been sociatin among the fine folks 
at the race tracks, and won a race or two, sayin nothin about 
the loosins, he’s so very pahticulah, and so powful nice like, 
and so mighty zactin at home nowdays. 


148 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


fine young horse, Lawd Alexandah, the first, Mist us 
lows, has introduced him to the best sciety in Kaintucky, for 
it all tends the races, and she says people have done forgot 
he evah did mend griss mills, and do now casionally even 
call him Kunnel. 

‘‘‘All that is makin the Maashall people on the next plan- 
tation jess a lill obstropolous, seein him risin so fast as a 
gemmelman, though gittin porer every day, and him jess 
about as pahticlah and nice about his surroundins as he can 
be. And then morebetaken to that, the ministah to be wait- 
ed on by the dinin room help is young, the sistahs who will 
beam on him their sweetest rays, are youngish they selves or 
theys all keepin up a powful thinkin that way, and thats all 
the same, ia their minds, as if they was, you know, now dear, 
I spect young ministahs are mighty apt to, and I know by 
myself that youngish wimin ginerally see everything thats 
round to be seen for the lookin, whethah or no. 

“‘So dear, you must go to your room in the attic where 
youve kept house so long I almost forgit, take off that pretty 
snow white dress and the weddin slippahs, and slip away 
from the house so the company comin through the cedahs 
wont see you, and go down to Aunt Polley's, your mothah's, 
at the patch. Now be sure, put on a woolsy dress, leave off 
the ribbons, you're goin to rest. Dear above knows you need 
it! Now stop cryin, you cant help it now, its too late! I've 
told you so many times — that servin in a mastah’s house, or 
grubbin roots in a clarein or long an ole fence row, for a 
woman, is, in the eyes of the Kaintucky white ownah, only a 
question of a woman's fohm and her bility to grub saplin 
roots, it dont mattah how a woman looks burnin grub roots 
in a clarein there's money in it, but in the big house the fohm 
must be right, so fold your white dress, keep the wrinkles all 
out, you may have a chance to wear it again, sometime, dear 
knows when, from pearances. 

“‘Now dear, please dont cry any more, for a black woman 


PASSING OF THE OLD MINISTER. COMING OF THE NEW 149 

though ole, has nerves, mighty tough though sometimes. 
You kin send youah husband aftah youah cloze.' 

‘^Melissy, now blinded by her tears, started to go out of 
the room when the housekeeper called her back as she said 
to her, ^Welissy Quigley, you well remembah 1 was tryin to 
keep you from marryin that hightoned dahkie dude from the 
Maashall place, who nevah knode nothin but black his mas- 
tab's boots and tend a saddle horse, and not nevah a thing 
about fahmin. I told you how hard it was for a cullud mar- 
ried woman to keep a place in her mastah's house, but it done 
no good and now you're in trouble, shore nough. But what 
1 was going to say was, Ministah Samuel's cart will fetch 
youall the siled linens every week, when you're not able to 
wash youah mothah will squeeze the nice ole things through 
the suds and that will save work here at the big house. And 
say, Melissy, when you want suthin good to eat, or git hun- 
gry for rale coffee, and tired of eatin yallah cawn bread 
all the time, you come to the back kitchen doah when the 
Sqiah isn't at home, or Mistus dont see you, for they dont 
want fiel hands about, Sqiah's too fashionable now for that, 
and the cook, if she has anything more than bacon side and 
hominy for herself, will remembah you once worked in the 
house, but raly, things do look slimsy in the kitchen now, 
sayin nothin about the stories comin up the hill from the 
'cullud folks houses in the patch. 

“The workin oeoples' tables are gittin mighty thin. The 
good Lawd help them for there's lill to help themselves to 
now. There's not a goblah on the place, and chickens from 
some cause are almost gone, the minks and owls must be 
rampageously bad. Dear above knows what weall will do 
if Lawd Alexanah fails to show his heels to the Tennessee 
horse next time he runs. Weall ole folks may grub saplins 
and briahs in the ole rail fence rows yet, as we did when we 
were young when Mastah Jackson wanted to buy the fahm 
next to him. But there's to be one more ministerial tea, any 


150 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS. 


way , race winnins or loosins, whethah or no. 

‘‘‘But should the young ministah chance to see one of them 
darned holes on a napkin with the fambly name, Jackson, 
worked on the dear ole keepsake, by granmothah Jackson's 
own hand, and nevah allowed to be siled in her day, good- 
ness! Dear ole granmothah, mothah of Mistus Betsy Quig- 
ley's own mothah, dead and berried so long she's almost 
done forgot right here in her own house, would turn right 
ovah in her grave, where 1 see her laid away one cold, snowy 
day, she sholy would. And then them Baptis sistahs! I'm 
tremblin when I think what would be said if any stopped up 
holy napkin was laid at one of their plates. 

“‘My dear, aftah your baby's bawn, you will have time to 
help the fahmin work along by tendin all the nussin babies 
and lill chillens for the fiel mothahs while they's out in the 
fiels helpin to shock and bind and stack, and worm. It will 
be some time before you'll be Wedged to leave your own pet 
to be gone from mawnin till noon and noonin till night 
while your baby fights the flies and the puppy dawgs away, 
but some mothah will be waicin to take her turn as a mam- 
my for your baby, as you done for othahs. 

“‘Now dont go away cryin and wringin your hands that 
way, you know I told you what mostly happens, but you 
wouldn't lissen, sides some of the Baptis sistahs may be com- 
in through the cedahs and hear you cryin, then they'd go 
away and talk, and talk about the bad tase some people show 
not callin any names of cose, claimin they nevah whip no 
niggah, theyselves, when spectin a call from the ministah and 
his friens. Now go away from the house soon as you change 
your fine cloze, and for mercy sake dont let the company see 
you cryin.'" 


CHAPTER IX. 


A VISIT TO AUNT POLLEY^S AT MAPLE TREE 
SPRINGS* 

i i I T was months aftah that ministerial tea, and the younj^: 

* ministah had taken the place of the ole preachah who 
had baptized and saved half the wimin of the neighborhood 
in the long years he had preached in Pisgah church, and was 
now gaged in the reglah work, life insurance, that 1 found 
myself goin down stony hill to maple tree springs to visit my 
sick wife at her mothah's Aunt Polley's at the Quigley 
patch. It had been a very hot day, and though night had 
come, there was hardly air nough stirin to rustle the maple 
leaves on the limbs above the gushin spring of watah flowin 
out of the stone beneath the roots of the trees. I stopped at 
the spring to rest, and to drink, for 1 had been ridin in the 
saddle all day with John Clay Maashall lookin ovah the fiels 
and fences. We got home late and I had walked from 
the Maashall house down the pike to the Quigleys. Sittin 
by the spring I noticed the dawgs of the patch had all gather- 
ed close about Aunt Polley's house. 

“Any Kaintucky white man, raised among cullud folks and 
who as a babe sucked a black mammy's breasts, as most 
whites, rich nough to hire, or pore nough to borrow a mammy, 
has, would know, soon as they see the dawgs lazin about a 
blackman's cabin anytime at night, that the house was full of 
black folks. 

As 1 set at the spring 1 thought 1 nevah see so many dawgs, 
seemed dawgs of all cullahs and sizes were everywhere, they 
come friskin round me in droves whinin piteously, much as 
to say, plain as a dawg could speak: There's more trouble 
for ouah kinfolk of the Quigley patch,' ‘go soffly from 
151 


152 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


the deep shade about the spring tords the house. As 
I went stummeld ovah a washin kittle, and empty tub side a 
wood pile among the stones. The kittle was layin on its 
side, and 1 sprauled into a heap of washin dumped out in the 
ashes where fiah had been. As 1 neared the cabin house 
there floated away on the still night air the sotf sweet strains 
of cullud folks singin. I then knode for sure, why all the ole 
mothah dawgs and their famblies had been waitin about the 
house. The black folks were holdin a prayer meetin. 

“The dawgs stopped whinnin when I went headlong ovah 
the kittle, but when the singin in the house begin every hound 
dawg it seemed to me in the Pisgah neighborhood, set up its 
most pitiful wail, and as 1 come nearer to the cabin doah the 
cryin of the dawgs and the low plaintive voices of the wor- 
shipahs come to me faintah, and then faintah, as though fur- 
ther and further away, and as 1 stood at the wide open doah 
of the darkened cabin room, ceased, and all was still. Then 
someone blowin a fiah coal by the chimbley lit a light, and as 
1 stooped to go in the doah Ministah Samuel Jackson, candle 
in hand, was seen with his ole singin book, he nevah learned 
to read a word in, layin wide open on his knees, the meltin 
grease drippin down. 

“The ministah was all ready, if it was a white man comin, 
to line any hymn he might think of in the tattered ole book, 
and he knode something of all there was in its pages. It was 
the only book ceptin his good ole testament, now partly worn 
out, that evah had been among the cullud folks on the place. 
The ownahs of the people and the land sence great 
granmothah Jackson went to heaven from Kaintucky had 
been law abidin and had nevah allowed no slave to learn the 
a, b, cs, let alone read. It would have been dangersome to 
sciety and the state. But the ministah could line the singin 
as well as the people could sing, and if he missed a few words 
as he went along the singers wouldnt know it, and there 
were plenty more to be used, so the people would sing and 


A VISIT TO AUNT POLLEY^S AT MAPLE TREE SPRING 153 

pray as long as any pore white was jukin round the patch, or 
the hound dawgs whined tellin them some white was about. 

“So it was, if the dawgs whined and cried, and were oneasy, 
there was a prayer meetin. But if the dawgs slep sound and 
were heard to scratch allround undah the house floah, the 
cull Lid folks would talk about their troubles and cry among 
theyselves, cause they were in trouble, knowin someone of 
their numbah would soon be sold to pay race horse loosins. 
They were all the more sad now, for their last hope of winin 
out in the race was gone, the young horse, Lawd Alexandah, 
had been distanced in the last big race ovah the Lexington 
tracks, and Sqiah had lost again. Two of his stable boys he 
had taken to Lexington, were in jail, held as part pay for his 
debt to some men from Ahkinsaw, and the ovahseah had 
said more must go, and the poor black people were in mortal 
agony, knowin anothah partin in some fambly was nigh. So 
hearin the hounds whimpah as 1 come near the house, they 
all begin to sing, or to pray, one, but now seein it was only 
Josiah Maashall, at the stoopy doah, they all begin to talk. 
Everybody stopped singin, and everybody talked, and it was 
plain to be seen there was more trouble for the pore helpless 
blacks to meet, and being helpless, to endure as best they 
could. 

“1 soon see that all the wimin were wringin their hands 
and cryin low as if their pore hahts would break right away, 
and that Melissy was layin stretched out on her mothah's 
straw bed undah her mothah's ole red piny quilt. I run to 
the bed spectin to kneel side the body of my poor dead girl 
wife, when as my knees tetched the floah a pair of soff arms 
pushed out from undah the red pinys bloomin on Aunt 
Polley’s first weidin quilt, and as they went round my neck, 
my wife’s lips pressed mine, a voice whispahd, Siah, Siah! 
It was Melissy’s, and I knode my wife was still alive. I was 
waitin in her embrace for her to tell me if it was a girl, or 
leastways a boy, when her mothah, mad as a live hohnet in 


154 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS. 


bluebottle fly time, went on to say: 

‘“Now that Josiah Maashall, the pore girl’s reglahly per- 
mitted husband has come, stid of some pore lazin white trash 
as weall feared it was when the dawgs whined, 1 reckon Tie 
have to go all ovah my story of the visit of the niggah 
drivahs and the stillery ovahseah once more, pore and weakly 
as youah ole Auntie is, this very minit. But dear above 
knows it wont do no good for me to talk or youall to cry, 
cause a husband, if hese a black husband reglahly permitted 
to have by the ovahseah, dont count in Kaintucky, he dont. 
Chuch membah or sinnah its all the same, he nevah kin own 
his ownest wife and not one of their chillens. They all be- 
long to their mothah’s ownah, so all the cryin and talkin 
wont do no good. But as 1 was sayin when the dawgs 
sturbed us and the prayin meetin begin no’ white man shall 
carry my only chile away to Ahkinsaw, jess cause his horse 
was fastah than Sqiah Quigley’s horse, while 1 live, if the 
good Lawd will help me right then, he shant!’ Then cover- 
in her dear ole face in her tow skirt, she sobbed out: ‘Im fear- 
some the white Baptist folks have prayed to the Lawd so 
long tellin Him how lazy we are and how much we need 
their help to keep us from stahvin, roastin ear time, and from 
freezin side piles of pole fiah wood and ole rails, wintah times, 
that Hese sot in his ways, and wont see sis at all when the 
Ahkinsaw men tote her away. But remembah, soon as Me- 
lissy is turned out by the ohvahseah to be toted away to pay 
a debt of honah owed by a Kaintucky gemmelman whose 
horse come undah the wire last, 1 want to die right then, be- 
fore she takes her last drink from maple spring, 1 do. Youall 
hear me.^ You’l berry me close side my boy husband out in 
the grass fiel cornah, where Great Grand Mothah Jackson's 
red apple orchard trees used to grow in the ole times, when 
all a woman from the patch had to do most any time in the 
year, ceptin Chrismas, was to shake a tree limb and fill the 
skirt of her woolsy dress with nice red apples fallin on my 


A VISIT TO AUNT POLLEY’S AT MAPLE TREE SPRING 1 5 5 

boy husband's grave there in the shade, and no one to run 
her away, for he nevah would scare nobody, he wouldnt. 
It was his own hands that planted the red apple trees, where 
aftahwerds good ole Mistus Jackson had him planted.' 

‘‘Now all the wimin cried^ and the dawgs beginin to whine 
undah the house, the men begin to pray, but, as no whites 
come, the dawgs stopped whinin, and Auntie went on to say: 
‘Remem bah, aftah my chile is carried away to the cotton 
raisin country, and I'm dead, and youah Aunty's pore worn 
out bodys close up side that oletime grave where the apple 
blooms used to smell so sweet, and the honey bees hummed 
their summah tunes all the day long, dont any of you pore 
fearsome slave folks cry about me, cause Tie be gone home, 
away up yondah where all the pretty singin in ministah 
Samuels' book is hearin every day, and youdh ole Aunt 
Polley, young once more, wont want to trapse away back 
here, she wont.' Then while Auntie wrung her hands and 
stomped her foot on the puncheon floah too mad or else too 
happy to cry, all the wimin cried theyselves at the thought of 
good ole Aunt Polley's death and the singin in heaven and 
the men follerin ministh Samuel's leadins, as he lined, sung 
expressive of the final triumph awaitin them: — 

‘“I'm goin to glory on the rainbow stairs 
My homes beyond the silvah stahs. 

I'm layin aside this ole worle's cares 
While the angels let down the paschah bahs, 
Comealong with me, see the glory scene. 

Where no wintah comes and the grass is green 
Marrigoles bloom skylarks sing 
In a nevah changin land of spring.' 

“When ministah Samuel stopped linin, the book havin 
f allin to the floah, they all stopped singin, though they knode 
the hymn dare through, and now all bein quiet, the folks 
ready to lissen to a story of the aftahnoon at the cabin. 
Auntie recoverin command of herself went on to say: 


CHAPTER X. 

AUNT POLLEY’S WASH DAY. 


kk ft IWf INISTAH Samuers caht airly this mawnin brought 
AVI the ole Jackson linens for Melissy to wash and 
darn and irne. But youall know the chile isn’t able to git 
way down into no washtub, you do. Everybody but the 
whites up to the big house and the stahchy ole house keepah 
who nevah set a hen and who run Melissy away from the 
ministBh’s tea, knows that much, anyhow. So, as the things 
had to be washed, sick or no sick, I put the chile to bed jess 
as mothah done me when my time come, sot my washin 
kittle and my big half bade tub among the stones down un- 
dah the maple tree shades, where Fve washed and washed 
now for nigh onto sixty years, and my husbands died, were 
sold, or the lazy things run away and swum the Ohio rivah 
and jess let them all go but the first one. Knowin where he 
was undah the apple tree. 1 kindled a fiah undah a kittle of 
spring watah, piled the tub full of dirty linens for soakin,and 
while the watah was simmerin, lazed along, tendin the workin 
mothah’s chillens, tryin to keep them from tumblin into the 
spring, or fiah one, till their mothahs come from the fiels, 
and begin doin the washin myself. Everybody has been 
hearin ovah and ovah again the talkin about the great chist of 
drawers full of the ole-time Jackson linens left Betsy Jack- 
son’s mothah by her mothah, and that Mistus Betsy Jackson, 
now Quigley, is now wearin out. Well, it’s all true as Min- 
istah Samuel's preachin is true, it is, and it was the ole Jack- 
son linens all marked Jackson, and not one Quigley, that was 
sent to be washed to-day. 

“True! Why, every one of them chists of drawers filled 
156 


AUNT POLLEY'S WASH DAY 


157 


with linens for house usin, was a truth, and mighty lucky 
truths for Betsy Jackson, now Quigley, they were. Well, 
all that brings the fambly linens down to these hard times, 
when all the hard airnins of the ole Jackson place goes into 
a wad to be dropped at the loosin end of a horse race. All 
this time, and that too aftah the havin of my fourth husband, 
and not a chile yit, a daughtah was to come to my house 
here in the patch, and she was to care for them ole fambly 
napkins, and not anothah napkin was used in the Pisgah 
neighborhood. She was to care for them aftah her ownahs 
and their ownahs on earth forgot them and the givers of them 
now gone to heaven. 

“‘Seems like everything that is, was to be, as the Baptisteach 
us pore folks. What a pore worn out lot of keepsakes the 
linens are now, sence my only chile’s hands stopped foldin 
them away so careful and to know they were all nicely stitch- 
ed and all in their places. That’s all because their best frien 
who had been lookin aftah them sence she was a chile had 
been sent home to the patch to try to live on cawn bread and 
fat bacon sides, and not too much of them, with nevah no 
tase of even brown stoah sugah, let alone white, jess to keep 
the young Baptis preachah from seein her and she an honest 
married slave woman at that, and the source of the wealth 
of his own chuch and she a showin she would do her part to 
make it richer. 

“‘Aftah that the linens were used for common, as anybody 
kin see, but pore things, the holes sis had been darnin in them 
has told me all the story of the doins in the ole dinin room 
sence she left the house. Well, as I was goin on to remahk, 
when we heard Josiah comin and weall were afeared it was 
a pore white man till the dawgs only whined, for of cose the 
dawgs would tell us which it was, this very mawnin as I 
said awhile ago, down Stony hill comes Ministah Samuel 
Jackson’s mule caht behind ole whitey, screakin along the 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS. 


158 

lane with a great big basket piled full of them old Jackson 
linens in it, stid of only a few pieces as they ought to have 
been, the basket was piled high. So, me knowin that Me- 
lissy wasnt jess able herself to darn all the holes, and wash 
the dear ole things white as snow, as I well remembah seein 
them in the ole Cappen’s wife’s days, when I washed at the 
big house for she jess would have them that way. 

‘“Before beginin to wash atall, 1 hunted up my last bit of white 
linen thread and darned up all the places 1 could find best 1 could 
for my eyes are gittin weakly like these days and I couldnt 
see them all, though 1 couldnt make the darned places 
jess like the linin itself as Melissy can do. But I said to my- 
self: Now Aunt Polley, of cose your not so very young now; 
and youah ole eyes are bad, but Mistus Jackson is watchin 
all these nice ole things of hers layin round among the stones 
as she looks down from heaven, and she nevah wore no 
specks, so you must do the best ever you kin with them, and 
1 done it. 1 trimmed off all the ravlins 1 could find, bindin 
the edges with some nice white stitches Mistus Cappen Jack- 
son lamed me herself to make, she did. 

“‘Dear above only knows when youah Auntie will get 
anothah hank of nice whitelsh linen thread to darn with, for 
we must now sell all the flax we raise to get money to pay 
on the racin debts, and Im fearsome soon no Jackson will have 
any blue grass undah his feet of his own. 

“‘As 1 was settin undah the maple shades mindin the fill 
chillens that were big nough to crawl and tummel out of the 
house doah and then someway git to the cool shade, cryin all 
the time for their mothahs, and was lissenin to some othah 
babies cryin in the house, for youall knows a black baby will 
cry and cry, when its ownest mothah is out workin in the 
fiels all day, it will. As 1 was sittin there darnin and tendin 
to the chillens, 1 was sayin to one of the ole time Jackson 
table cloths, with its Jackson mark lookin straight et me as it 
could, as if huntin a friend, O you nice ole thing you, you 


AUNT POLLEY^S WASH DAY 


159 


do miss the sweet chile's care dont you? Then I went into 
the house to see if Melissy was tucked in undah my ole red 
piny quilt, the one mothah give me and all Tve got, kissed 
her hot cheeks by, by, ranged the babies layin asleep round 
on the floah among the flies so they wouldnt roll out of the 
doah, brought a bucket of watah from the spring, give all a 
drink that would take it and then went to my washin. The 
watah was good and hot by that time. Then 1 soaked, and 
soaked, and soaped, and squeezed careful like, some of the 
very nicest lace trimmed side bode spreads. 

‘“I smoked my cawncob pipe, and soaped and squeezed and 
lissened to the birds singin among the green leaves above the 
flowin spring watah, or my own cronin one. 1 was smokin 
and squeezin the big flowahs bloomin on the laces, all for 
dear old Grandmothah Jackson’s sake, knowin mighty well 
she was lookin right down at me through the maple leaves 
from the blue sky into the barle tub, all the time, she was. 
And so, singin, mindin the chillens to keep them from fallin 
into the spring where weall get a drink, your Aunt Polley 
had squeezed through the hot suds, a pile of nice ole things 
and put them in the kittle to bile bein careful to have the kit- 
tle settin solid on a stick of wood so it couldn’t tip ovah. 

“Touah Auntie then with her ole woneout red handker- 
cher wropped all about her gray head, her soapy, drippy 
hands restin on her patched tow apron, still smokin, was lis- 
senin all the time to the birds singin, as only a Kaintucky 
mockin bird knows how to sing, they do say. 

‘‘‘She was rememberin her first boy husband, the dear boy 
that died when she was only a girl, seems like now, it was so 
long ago that the red apple trees where they laid him in the 
shade are gone. She knowin jess where to find him, was 
wonderin what had evah become of all her othah husbands 
belongin to the neighbors round about, she had had, and who 
all runaway cross country to the free niggah states, and nevah 
were caught, or if caught, were sold with the rest of the cul- 


160 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS. 


lud people in the Harrodsburg jail and went away off south 
to make cotton. She had stooped ovah the barle tub, to work, 
and was lookin at her wrinkly face in the soap bubbles in the 
watah, and remembahin her lost young husband was thinkin 
of the long hard years gone by, when away went all the 
bahkin, yelpin dawgs scamperin fast as they could go, and 
the lill chillens todlin aftah them cryin loud as they could, 
all crawlin undah the house quicker, till there wasn't a chile 
left to chuck the chunks undah the kittle or a dawg to whine. 
Without evah so much as raisin her head, she knode by the 
chillens and the scamperin dawgs, some pore white trash was 
comin shore nough, but her hands nevah stopped squeezin 
the linens and splashin the suds, when who you spose was 
standin there close side the washin tub? Why! it was the red- 
headed ovahseah the Sqiah hiahd away from workin on the 
Spahklin Spring Stillery mash floah. 

‘“Yoiiall knows he kin tell how much whiskey a bushel of 
cawn will make if he dont know how to make a bushel of 
good yallah whiskey cawn, hisself. All you've got to do to 
know that, is to see his face. Well, my dears, that ovahseah 
was standin right up side the steamin barle tub jess where ole 
Granmothah Jackson used sometimes to stand as she watched 
me while them same linens were bein squeezed. But then, 
dear ole Grandmothah Jackson, if you did smoke your pipe 
full of leaf tobacco when watchin round among the cullud 
quatahs, you didn’t have youah mouth full of stinkin niggah 
twiss at the same time, did you, and the ovahseah did. 

“Jf there’s anything on the earth 1 hate it’s a white niggah 
ovahseah chawin niggah twiss, but 1 gagged and kep on 
smokin myself and squeezin, I did, and he up and said, ‘why. 
Aunt Polley, mawnin,’ I said ‘mawnin, sah,’ but kept right 
on squeezin and lookin in the soap bubbles now at the ovah- 
seah’s red face fleeted there. The man from the whiskey 
mash floah reached his head way ovah my tub of clean things 
and spit a great gob straight at my kittle of simmerin linens. 


AUNT POLLEY'S WASH DAY 


161 


which jess missed it, splattered all down the side of the hot 
steamy kittle into the ashes. Laws, how it smelled, less it was 
his breath among the hot steam. 

“Then he wiped his mouth with his open hand and said, 
‘Auntie, you're mighty peart, you are, for an ole wrinkled, 
gray headed woman like you, tendin to all the black and yal- 
lah chillens sides doin a big washin, while the rest of the 
wimin make a day in the fiels. If my wife had known this 
was washin day with you, you might have washed for her 
too, jess as well as not, house hands like othah things are so 
mighty scace now on the place, we are sendin 
ouah house girl to the fiels aftah breakfast, then she 
worms tobacco till time to come in and git dinnah, 
though she’s that ole she hasn’t a good tooth in her 
head. Aftah dinnah she worms until time to come to the 
kitchen and wash her hands and make saleratus biscuits and 
git suppah ready, she’s a great girl to keep everything clean 
about her, she is, but with all her tobacco wormin and cookin 
between times she hasn’t had no time to do any cloze wash- 
in for herself or anybody, so to be easy on her, and that the 
wormin might go on, wife and me have worn the same shirts 
for about three weeks, and had them on at baptizin last Lord’s 
day, but then we must go to preachin you know, we cant be 
heathens in this Christian country. Of cose havin been 
raised among the Jacksons who were mighty strict Baptis 
folks, at least with their cullud people, and the Quigley’s 
aftah them, and knowin my place, I was bledged to say, ‘yes 
sah, that’s so Mistah Ovahseah, that’s so.’ 

“‘Youah Auntie’s head was goin lower and lower in the 
hot steam in the tub as the ovahseah talked and talked, when, 
he seein his red face in the soap bubbles among the fine laces, 
pushed hisself down to see the pretty things, when the cawn 
whiskey and niggah twiss mixin with the hot steam, I choked 
and gagged bawdaciously. 

“‘Chokin, stranglin, my mouth, my nose full of the stinkin 


i62 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


steam or the man’s breath, one, I staggered back from that 
washin tub, and for the very first time see I had othah com- 
pany sides the Baptis chuch membah side the steamin tub for, 
standin there by the spring, with watah godes in their hands 
drinkin watah as a sprise to their stomachs, were two black 
whiskered pore whites, their beedy black eyes watchin me 
from ovah the drinkin godes undah their slouchy white hats. 
1 noticed at the first glance, their red cotton handkerchers, 
butternut vests, jeans cloze, high boot legs, and that one 
whipped out a long shahp knife from his hip pocket, and 
shaved off some flat tobacco, passin the plug to the othah 
gemmelman, who as he looked youah auntie ovah, bit a 
mouthful off the plug. Then my gray head and my trimbly 
haht went down, down deep into that washin tub or some- 
where for I knode they were niggah drivin gemmelmen from 
the South. So what could youah aunty do but wash, and 
squeeze, and pray, for her pipe had dropped undah the suds. 
1 prayed to the good Lawd above us, all the time mightily 
afeard he wouldn’t see me, and that Sqiah Quigley had lost 
another race and that the drivahs had come to carry me dare 
away as had been done with so many of my pore husbands 
before me. 

“‘So, as 1 prayed that 1 might be spared to live among 
Christians in Kaintucky, stid of goin to work among heath- 
ens in the cotton patches of Ahkinsaw, I coffed, and coffed. 
It was wondahful how my last wintah's coffin spells come 
back, my side got so achy I could hahdly stand at the tub at 
all. 

“‘As I was prayin to the Lawd to save me once more, the 
thinnest skimmed white I evah did see, and I’ve seen many a 
one, sidled up to the tub, among the flyin suds and from 
undah his wide slouch hat looked at me shahply, but the 
nearer he got and the louder he smelled of bourbon, the 
worse was that coff, and the more youah auntie prayed. 

“‘Why the men should want to buy a wrinkly ole woman 


AUNT POLLEY'S WASH DAY i6) 

who had lost by death, and sellin, and runnin away, fouah 
men, sayin nothin about Melissy's fathah, who couldn’t run, 
was more than 1 could undahstand, between my coffin spells. 
1 was wonderin if the gemmelmen would let me go in the 
house to see my chile before takin me away, when one man 
theyall called Kunnel, took right hold of my ragged red hand- 
kercher and pullin me out of the tub looked into my wrinkly 
face as 1 coffed, and as I grabbed anothah handful of soap 
suds, he sot right down on the washin wood pile and chawed 
tobacco and spit in my fiah, now gittin low, and laffed as he 
said to the ovahseah, ‘is this gray haired, parched up, snaggy 
mouthed ole granmothah the wench you brought me to see, 
sah? We nevah take no chances in a horse race for no 
woman like her, why, the ole woman coffs like a steam boat 
runnin an island chute in the Ahkinsaw rivah in low watah, 
she does. Her lungs are about as near gone as her teeth, 1 
reckon’ from her wheezin.’ Then 1 knode the Lawd was 
hearin me’ seein the man found fault, and the Kunnel went 
on to say: This wench is grandmothah of half the people on 
the place I reckon, you must show us suthin else.’ 

“‘Right there I forgot to leave it all with the Lawd, as me, 
a good Baptis should do, and mad as 1 could be, 1 got right 
out of that bade tub, and standin right up before the niggah 
drivahs, your Aunt Polley said so they all could hear her 
talkin, but forgittin to coff: 

‘“Now that haint a fact, I’m no grandmothah. Then re- 
membahin myself 1 said as 1 cried, my coff is bad, and I’m all 
worn out every way. I’m powahful sight oldah now than 
when my boy husband died and was berried in the apple or- 
chard, 1 am. 1 was young then, but I’m not a grandmothah. 
I’m not that ole. Now youall ought have heard the thin 
skimmed whitewashed Kunnel laff, he jess shook the wood 
he set down on till he almose fell onto the smolderin fiah side 
the bilin kittle, and if 1 am a Baptis woman, I wish he had 
and burned up right there, whiskey and all. 


164 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


‘'^When wishin I wasnt so ole that they might carry me 
long to Ahkinsaw where no culliid pusson is allowed to talk 
back to a white man, the Kunnel tryin hard to stiddy hisself 
on the wood pile said: ‘Your as thin as a string and will soon 
blow away, less your tied fast to your washin tub/ Then I 
knode my prayers for myself would be ansahd, nevahthinkin 
the men would dare talk about seein Melissy. But I kept 
right on splashin the suds and trustin in the Lawd. I had to 
lissen you know, while the men talked about my bony hands 
wearin the linens out like any othah lazy ole cullud woman's, 
for the cullud people, they said, nevah knode how anything 
come, but pended on the whites for all they eat, slimpsy or 
plenty, and the medicines they took, when eatin so much 
made them sick, sayin nothin about their cloze. 

“‘Durin the lill conversation about the steamin wash tub, 
while 1 kept right on squeezin the same ole napkin all the 
time, prayin and lissenin hard as I could, the gemmelmen 
eluded Sqiah Quigley's debt was one of the debts of honah 
mong Kaintucky gemmelmen, who as long as they had any 
property to turn out would pay. They agreed, as Sqiah, a 
Kaintucky gemmelmen would pay, nobody would be bledged 
to tote an ole wash woman away while there was suthin 
betteh on the place they might take, and that a buyer's eyes 
was his market, and so all laffed at the ide of a buyer comin 
to Kaintucky for a drove of ole people he would have to feed 
with a spoon when he got home, or plant in aberryin ground 
to keep them from blowin away, one. 

“‘1 had lost all interest in the niggah-buyin gemmelmen, 
seein they wouldnt have me nohow, and with my face almose 
down on the washin things, was thinkin about Melissy, right 
then almose a mothah, and ready to mighty nigh die as all 
mothahs do bearin a chile to pay their own mothah back for 
bearin them, and to leave a woman behind themselves to tote 
the world's greatest burden maternity. And wishin Melissy 
didnt owe me that debt, for I was mighty shore I didnt want 


AUNT POLLEY'S WASH DAY 165 

no pay for my trouble, seein I had five husbands and only 
the one chile. Sides I was glad only my fifth husband had a 
chile that could have a chile to be looked ovah by gemmel- 
men like the crowd round my tub looked ovah me as a 
fahmer would jedge a mule, I was, my dears, for that 
one was nough. Youah Aunt Polley, good Christian Baptis as 
she is, and knowin as she does that she has a large potion of 
savin grace, by that time found her ole self, and youd hardly 
believe it of cose, found she was gittin bawdaciously mad. 
But knowin I musnt be obstropolous to no whites in the 
Christian State of Kaintucky, I nevah opened my snaggy 
mouth, but kept right on squeezin the same ole napkin, and 
splashin the suds not sayin a single word cause I dassnt. 
Kept my mouth shet? Why auntie nevah showed a snag to 
bite with, she didnt. Mad? Your ole aunt was as cited as 
a full grown ncss of black hohnets buzzin all round among 
the great big leaves, on a saplin hickory tree lim, in a worm 
fence cohnan in August, swingin in the wind jess tetchin the 
blue grass heads, is, while a whole pack of black, yallah and 
some almose white dipped cullud boys from the patch goin 
to the woods paschah aftah the milkin cows, and calves, 
while stoppin to rest, punch the mothah hohnets papah house 
with a long slim cawn stalk they stole from the fiel. 

‘“And you mind me now, for Tm tellin you if Td had 
fathah's splittin axe he makes fence rails with in the wintah 
time when he has to, or he nevah would chop arry stick, but set 
and toast his feet by the fiah, and only dast do it, and I would 
dast if Fd been a pore white woman, though Fm jess as good 
as she, dear above knows, and will sell for more money 
any time. 1 say if Fd had that axe, and the Kunnel and 
his man, and the white ovahseah had been the very last 
niggah drivahs on earth, and so no more of their kind would 
evah come back to the ole Cappen Jackson place, if theys 
gone, Baptis bretheren as I spect they was, jess now theyd 
been all layin round the ovahturned ine washin kittle of dirty 


166 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS. 


linens, with their heads chopped dare off, Tm tellin you. 

‘‘To make mattahs wuss jess then, when I was remembahin 
how the hohnets zipped the cows as the pore things 
toted their milk home, a stick of wood burned in two, 
a kittle laig pushed its way through the live coals, and the ine 
kittle chuck full of simmerin washed linens and windah cur- 
tains went down, down through the burned chunks, cathrash! 
1 jumped and grabbed the hot kittle's sides with my soapy 
hands, but ovah it went, napkins, curtains, lace edged table 
covahs with the ole Jackson mark in their cornahs, and singin 
birds among the lace flowers, hot watah and all splurgin 
among the ashes and tobacco spit, all spreadin among the 
rocks to the very foot of the wood pile. It made my ole 
sides ache as I smothahd down a shout of glory! glory! as 
the scaldin hot watah run among the pore thin skimmed 
white washed white's big feet. But I shouted to myself too 
soon, for the Kunnel jumped dare ontop of the wood pile, or 
his feet would have been scalded like a Chrismas pig. 
And there I stood by the side of my ovahturned washin 
kittle, hiked upon the stones, my towe skirt showin my 
naked black knees, cryin hard as 1 could. All the big 
soap bubbles I had seen my face in, all heavenly 
Grandmothah Jackson's linen keep sakes I had squeezed 
through one watah, to a simmerin, were dumped out in the 
ashes among the stones. Now youall can't blame me if I do 
cry, kin you.^^ 

“J was stompin my swelled feet in the hot watah among 
the ashes and the spilled cloze, mighty nigh forgettin my 
Baptis trainin, when the ovahseah dragged me onto dry 
ground and said: ‘See here Aunt Polley, dont low yourself to 
git cited about no little thing's it wont do no good, the only 
thing to do is to gathah all the dirty things up out of the 
tobacco spit, and wash them out when you do my wife's 
washin, it is. Sides, theres been a big mistake, these Ahkin- 
saw gemmelmen dont want to buy you,, they dont. Its the 


AUNT POLLEY'S WASH DAY 


167 


young black woman that once worked in the bighouse dinin 
room, Sqiah Quigley thought he might as well sell. Its her 
they want to look at, not you, so let the things lay among 
the stones and hurry her out of the house so the gemmelmen 
kin see her.' 

‘‘‘My dears, right then 1 was almose f allin among the 
stones into the dirty washin myself, for I had, with all the 
prayin for myself, forgotten to pray for Melissy. I was dare 
beat out, I was, so I sot right down on the wood pile edge 
with my ole torn shoes lettin the hot watah in, soakin my 
feet among the laces and linens. Gawd knows 1 nevah in- 
tended to forget my chile when I prayed to Him. 1 wrung 
my hands and begged and begged for sis. 1 told the men she 
was almost a mothah that very minit, as you all know. I 
asked them to please sense her till Sqiah Quigley's horses 
were beat agin, which wouldnt be so very long to wait. Then 
when Kunnel begin to look ashamed and turned away, 1 
thought he was remembahin his own mothah and wife were 
jess wimin, so 1 hunted up all my courage and told the men 
it was a shame to take even a slave mothah's chile away from 
her, though it had been done on the Quigley place before 
that, and the mothahs were still cryin for their lost chillens 
that were workin somewhere among strangahs. Then the 
first thing I knode 1 was standin up before the tradahs wavin 
my soapy hands above their heads as they dodged about de- 
clahin with all my might, youall can't see the girl, there now 
haint you ashamed of youahselves? If you haint shamed 
then youah mothahs, for I spose you had mothahs, would be 
ashamed for their sons. I tell you, you can't see sis, there 
now! 

“‘My, how sprised the whites were. You ought to have 
seen them as I stomped my swelled feet among the wet black 
laces on the dirty ground among the stones, and jumpin to 
the wood pile picked up a stick of wood big enough to kill a 
black snake with. I nevah could tell why youah aunty waved 
that stick of wood ovah their heads, and they whites too, but 


168 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS. 

she did. Tm spectin to be sent to jail among the badniggahs 
at Harrodsburg right away, 1 am, and I nevah will come back 
no more. O, dear! O, dear!’ 

''At this pint Aunt Polley almost fainted away, but the 
people soon had a gode of cold watah from the spring to her 
lips, and Ministah Samuel led the singin till she was herself 
again, when auntie went on to say: 

'"'Then the Kunnel pullin a long shahp knife out of his 
boot leg, stepped up close to me, and holdin the knife close 
to my face run his thumb way along its shiny edge, nevah 
sayin a word, but watchin my throat mighty close, his mouth 
shet tight, his black eyes dartin fiah like any snake watchin 
of you in the grass, but he didn’t hiss, though he spit and 
spit. The cold chills run way down my ole back, uh-h-h-h, 
for I see 1 was about to die shore nough.’ 

"Here a woman handed auntie the gode of watah, as she 
said: 

"'I was about to die, dears, die and all my bright, red blood 
would run all ovah the dirty linens about my feet, and what 
would pore ole grandmothah Jackson in heaven say then? 
As the men all gathahd about youah auntie and she knode 
she was dyin fast as she could aftah her throat was cut, and 
would nevah see youall no more less you come to heaven 
where she was. Kunnel run his tongue way along his knife 
blade, jess as Hughey Gilmore use to do when a customah 
wanted a pound of cheese cut off the cake, and the very min- 
ute auntie was goin to faint, he begin to slice a shaven off 
the edge of his long flat plug of natchel leaf, and I felt my- 
self sinkin, sinkin way down on the linens, litin on the wood 
pile, but Kunnul changed his mind and passin the knife and 
tobacco to his man from Ahkinsaw, I was saved. But the 
long, slim, thin, whitewashed, pore white man that now had 
the knife, aftah fillin his mouth chuck full of natchel leaf, 
from the plug, as a big lump begin to grow in my throat so 
I could hahdly breathe, stepped up to me, and was lookinme 
dare through from out his long black hair with his snaky 
eyes, when the ovahseah, rushin up, peshed him away, cryin 
out, 'don't cut her throat, don’t cut her throat, she’s worth a 
heap yit, ole as she is, don’t cut it, sides you might be found 
out.’ So, aftah givin youah auntie a Took that made her 
trimble and the wood pile almost shook down, the man pass- 
ed the plug to the Kunnel, and I was saved at last. 


CHAPTER XI. 

AUNT POLLEY^S APPEAL TO THE NEGRO BUYERS. 

ik a £ O OON as j could breathe, 1 was bledged to go 
through] the pack of dawgs and chillens settin 
round pushed along by the ovahseah, to the house, to tell 
Melissy the niggah drivahs had come for her and would take 
her away, and her own mothah nevah would see her or her 
chile, when she had one, agin, she wouldn't. My ole knees 
most went through the puncheon floah as they dropped down 
side pet's bed, and pressin my cryin face to pet's, I told her 
between sobs about the niggah drivahs, the spilled linens, the 
shahp knife, and how 1 had prayed for help, but it seemed 
they would take her right now, whethah or no. When, as 
we were kissin each othah good by, nevah spectin to see each 
othah no more, a big coase voice back at the doah hurried 
me to bring the girl out, a man stooped in the doah and as he 
done so Melissy cried, ‘I'm ready to die. I'm ready to die,' 
covered her head with my ragged, but clean, ole piny quilt 
and she, trimblin like a leaf, waited for the man's fightin 
knife to cut down through the red pineys, when runnin to 
the open doah, 1 kneeled down before the men wringin my 
hands and beggin the man for Gawd's sake, who they knode 
knew everything, to jess leave the pore young mothah at 
home for a few days or weeks. But seein no lights of 
pity in their faces, nothing but black clouds. Still kneelin 
in the doah way close by Melissy 's'yallah puppy dawg who 
would keep growlin and snappin at the men, 1 said ‘sein 
race loosins are debts of honah among gemmelmen in Kain- 
tucky, and must be paid with property when there isn't any 
money to pay with, and the weathah has been dry, and the 
169 


170 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


crops are thin, and the cattle and the hogs are all gone off 
the place, and the Sqiah can’t spare any more men from the 
tobacco fiels in wormin time, and so a woman is to be sold, 
take me, O kind gemmelmnn, wont you take me? I’m not 
too ole to work in the hot sun in the cotton fiel, orsugah fiel, 
or the mills, or to tote cawd wood. I’m not. Look at this 
bony arm, its done heeps of hard work, it has. Wont you 
let me go stid of Melissy, kind Christian gemmelmen, wont 
you? Dont youall want a sperienced cook down among 
youah happy homes where its alters summah time, and they 
do say the birds sing all the year round, and the flowahs 
bloom out in the fiels even for the wimmin pickin and loadin 
the cotton bolls. Havn’t you some sweet till white chillens 
at home that like nice cookies with sugah on? These knotty 
ole hands that’s been all worn out sence Cappen Jackson died 
workin in the fiels makin cawn, if there’s some fill chillens to 
love, and they kin only git the flouah and buttah and the sugah 
and aigs and nuts and raisins, for youah auntie hasn’t got any, 
auntie will do all the rest. 

‘“Look at my ole hands, they’s not so hard, they’s like an 
ole black mammies haht, they’s soff, they’s rale tendah to lill 
chillens all the time, deedy they are, look at them gemmel- 
men, wont you? If you will only take them, you’ll find 
when the fathah of the chillens is sick, they’ll not be so hard, 
they’ll help to smooth the troubles all away, they will, 1 said. 

‘“Gemmelmen, lissen to an ole black Baptis slave mothah, 
these trimbly hands will work for you as long as the ole 
mammy lives, her haht will try to disremembah her own 
people if you spare her chile and take her, and her last breath 
will be a blessin on youah chillen’s heads. 


CHAPTER XII. 

THE GEMMELMEN FROM AHKINSAW. 

k i UT the drivahs from Ahkinsaw only laffed at me, 
and the ovahseah now dare out of patience tried 
to push into the house past me, for I still kneeled, but gittin 
off my knees 1 went to the chile, for I had done all I could to 
save her. I had begged the drivahs and the Lawd, and that 
was all I could do. The girl wife got out of bed and stood 
barefooted on the rough hewn floah. Wantin her to make 
as good pearance as possible if she must be zamined like a 
sellin mule by the gemmelmen from Ahkinsaw, 1 wrapped 
the ole patched, but clean, piny quilt, my own dear mothah 
gave me and my first boy husband to gotohousekeepin with, 
all about her most. As 1 was smooothin the ole faded red 
flowahs mothah's own hands sewed togethah so nice for me 
in the days the Jacksons were buy in all the fahmin lands 
that jined their land, I couldn’t help thinkln about the boy 
husband I got with the piny quilt when it was new, and how 
good lookin he was when me and the ole quilt were young. 

“'Seem 1 dare forgot the whites were waitin at the doah 
for sis to come, as I did about all the othah husbands who 
were sold or run away before the chile’s fathah or mothah 
were permitted to live togethah while they could agree, or 
the ownah could agree that they should live togethah. Then 
that red piny quilt was about all the boy and me had to keep 
house with. Well, dears, I’ve more time to tell you the 
story now, pears like, than 1 had to wrap the chile in the 
quilt then, so the beedy black eyes of the buyers couldn’t jess 
see her, for the bearded rough faces of gemmelmen from 
Ahkinsaw were fillin the doah, as theyall stood outside spit- 
171 


172 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


tin tobacco juice inside, and hurryin me as my pore ole hands 
fixed and fixed the red flowahs and the blue leaves of that 
dear ole quilt undah pet’s chin so it couldn’t drop way down 
to her heels and 1 was cryin out loud jess as I am now, but 
somehow 1 carried the girl wife to the stoopy doah and helped 
her step out in the dry dust on the ground side the mawnin 
glory vines she planted undah the only windah of the log 
cabin home, she quakin like a silvah poplah leaf, while her 
yallah puppy dawg, not much biggah than youah shet hand, 
follerin her licked her pore naked feet, and growled and snap- 
ped at the whites, and me cryin. 

‘“But there Melissy stood, covered by the ole red piny 
quilt wrapped tight about her neck, her shamed face dropped 
on her breasts, her right hand clutchin the piny crumpled un- 
dah her chin, and me sayin all the time jess so she could hear 
me, and 1 thought the whites couldn’t, ‘hold tight to the quilt 
Melissy, hold it tight dear, don’t you evah let go,’ and she a 
trimblin and ready to faint and fall all the time. 

“‘But what could a pore ole black mothah do but cry, and 
pray hard as she could to herself trustin the Lawd’s cars 
would hear her, when suthin went wizzen close side her head! 
I heard it drop on the floah way inside the cabin, and laws 
how the puppy yelped and cried. One of the gemmelmen 
from Ahkinsaw had picked him up and flung him in. But 
still there stood that ole piny quilt straight up on the ground, 
a very black face above, some very black feet below it, and 
that was all there was to be seen. 

“‘Now mind. I’m tellin youall. I’m a reglah baptized mem- 
bah of Gawd’s own chuch, cose not a membah among the 
white Christians of Gawd’s chuch on earth, who own us, and 
sell us, and set us up in the high galleries, till we’re sold, set 
us way up there to pray for us Sundays. I’m a pore black 
Christian woman hopin the price Jesus paid to buy back the 
soul aftah all unbeknownst, it had been stolen away from his 
fathah in heaven, bought the slave as well as the ownah. 


THE GEMMELMEN FROM AHKINSAW 173 

“‘I say, only hopin that Jesus paid it all, for some white 
Christians are fearsome he didn’t and that there are no cullud 
souls at all, and it raly does seem to youah auntie that if 
Jesus did buy us blacks with a price, then somebody sold us 
away latah, deedy it does now. But dear above knows how 
when 1 was a girl, and my first boy husband was jess hangin 
round nights, aftah workin hard all day, waitin to speak one 
word to me, I, one evenin while watchin for him, killed a 
wild turkey goblah settin on the cawn fodder pile with fath- 
ah’s flint lock shot gun. Of cose turkeys were plenty then. 
O, if I only had that gun in my hands then, and dast,as Me- 
lissy stood shrinikn undah the tetch of the pore whites siled 
fingahs, the gun would certainly have fiahd straight as it did 
at the turkey, and there’d been one slave drivah less to go 
back home to Ahkinsaw, youall know, but auntie didn’t have 
the flint rock gun, so all she could do was to stand as close to 
Melissy as the white Kunnel would let her, as she said to Me- 
lissy, 'youah own granmothah give that quilt to youah own 
first fathah and me, hold tight to the red piny quilt, dont let 
it go.’ 

"'When the Kunnel, now gittin mad hisself, pushed me 
aside, kicked at Melissy’s yallah puppy dawg, and seein the 
blackish feet below the quilt, and the black face above it, he 
beggin to squeeze the quilt to see if there raly was a black 
woman in among the red flowahs and blue leaves between 
them, and as he punched the girl in the side, all the blood of 
the girl wife’s slave kin folks from the fightahs of Africa to 
to the slave in Kaintucky, ness, rushed into her cheeks, and I 
know there wasn’t a single drop of that same kind of blood 
left in my haht neithah. 

"‘By that time the lump in my throat swelled so big not a 
groan could git past it, and the tears had all run out of my 
eyes, but Gawd help me, if I couldn’t speak, I could hear and 
see, as the Kunnel’s man, the meanest brute of all said, speak- 
in to sis, ‘you’r not so very nice, you’re too black. Heaps of 


174 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS. 


cullud wimmin white as any white man’s own wife, ceptin 
that tinge of cullah that will show through the powdah on 
the cheeks and on the neck cause its a taint in the woman’s 
blood that cant be powdahd or painted out, with red cheeks, 
shahp nose, and long flowin hair down their backs, red lips, 
and droopy eyes and taperin fingahs, have been quietly sold 
right here among the Christian church membahsin Kaintucky, 
sose to remove temptation from young whites raised in the 
same fambly where the wimin sold were bawn and raised. 
Course that seems a hard thing to do, but, this isn’t heaven, 
this is Kaintucky. Its not so much a question of shade of 
cullah here as it is that of possession and ownahship.’ 

“‘Then the gemmelmen from Ahkinsaw spected pets teeth, 
findin as they said, only pearls and they all her own. They 
declared her breath to be as sweet as that of the green fiels 
and southern pine woods of a spring mawnin aftah a grate- 
ful rain fall, and the Kunnel said to his man: *No white 
woman chewin a dip stick in Ahkinsaw can have as sweet a 
breath as this. It seems everything raised on blue grass and 
limestone watah in Kaintucky has a good fohm and plenty 
of wind, only aftah one leaves the wimin and looks at the 
horses he’s mighty apt to find them a lill short of breath when 
runnin against a Tennessee or Ahkinsaw flyer. That’s whats 
the mattah with Sqiah Quigleys horses, theys all Kaintucky 
blue grass and limestone watah, all right, but they lack a lill 
of Tennessee's Old Hickory in them. Kaintucky black wi- 
min, like her horses, are fine tu look at but you cant depend 
on them. Now look at that ole ragged quilt will you, see how 
straight it hangs down, do you remmembah what the ole 
lady at the wash tub told us about her girl motherin. Why 
the woman inside the quilt, if there is a woman inside of it, 
is as straight up and down as a towe string, the only evidence 
we have there is one there is the feet and face.’ 

“‘I had forgotten to pray as the men talked, and that I 
think was the cause of what was to happen. I had been 


THE GEMMELMEN FROM AHKINSAW 175 

watchin the fingahs clutchin the red piny tight undah the 
black chin and had forgotten to pray. 

“‘If youalls is tired and not hearin me, Tm sure the Lawd 
heard Melissy and me all the time, for jess as 1 knode the 
thin skinned whites could buy Melissy and carry her away to 
Ahkinsaw with the piny quilt and all, and the fine ole quilt 
would be gone at last, and that the girl's chile's fathah would 
nevah see it, for mothah and chile would be carried to the 
cotton fiels to work and Melissy's fifth fathah would die and 
be berried side her first, long with her mothah, Melissy's, fin- 
gah’s as cold as if she wasstone dead, let go the piny undah her 
chin. 

“The red piny flowahs, and the blue leaves, big as my hand, 
slipped from her clutch, 1 grabbed for them, but missin, down 
went the ole weddin present into the dust about the blackish 
feet. May the good angels help us, there wasn't left a single 
piny bloomin, nor a blue leaf rustlin in the sunshine, between 
the coal black woman herself, and thefaraway skiesof a pity- 
ing heaven. Not a single twisted thread was between her 
pore body and the eyes of the gemmelmen from Ahkinsaw, 
ceptin sisse's nice white ribboned, pleated cotton shirt starched 
so stiff it would standalone, the Maashall white ladies give her 
themselves to be married in. Gawd bless them, for if it hadn't 
been for them, sis nevahwould have had that much on. 
There the black woman stood, her arms folded ovah her pore 
breasts, lookin at the dare sky way ovah the niggah drivah's 
heads, but nevah seein them atall! An honest slave woman 
and wife for sale.' 

’ “Then the friens, men and wimin, led by the ole minis- 
tah, Samuel Jackson, who had baptized many of them, and 
was present when some were bawn, jined in a low sweet pray- 
er for the deliverance of their race from the bondage of slav- 
ery, the sin of the age they were livin in. 

“When the ministah stopped prayin Aunt Polley went on 
to say, ‘as the pore chile stood, her face and hands raised to 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


176 

heaven, in mute despair, one of the gemmelmen from Ahkin- 
saw, glancin at the pretty lace-trimmed shirt, turned his back 
on the sight and walked away through the crowd of dawgs 
and chillens huddled about to the ovahturned kittle, and callin 
his frien, begin to gathah up the dirty linens, but the othah 
gernmelman citedly said as he looked at sis, ‘heavens, what a 
picchah of a mothah eve is this, only this one’s black as a 
coal and not a picchah atall, for she’s breathin, and mothah 
eve hadn’t any laces to wear. I’d quit the business of dealin 
in mothahs, only its cawdin to law and Baptis teachins, but 
scuse me please, auntie, you told the truth aftah all, when 1 
buy a chile it must be in its mothah’s arms or tuggin at her 
woolsy skirts, it must.’ 

“‘Then as the Ahkinsaw gernmelman was walkin tords his 
frien still tryin to dig the linens out of the dirt and stone, the 
ovahseah cried out to them, ‘well gemmelmen, don’t keep 
the girl standin here that way, make up youah minds gem- 
melmen, youah eyes are youah mahket.' The very last 
word 1 heard from any of them as 1 grabbed Melissy and 
pulled her and the piny quilt back in the stoopy doah was, 
‘yes, we know ouah eyes are ouah mahket, and we don't 
want to buy no hospital or grave yahd.’ 

“‘When I got Melissy inside the doah she was so weak she 
couldn’t walk, so I toted her to the straw bed where I hid her 
undah the ole red piny quilt. The last 1 saw of the ovahseah 
he was lookin in at the doah and sayin, ‘auntie, my wife will 
send you the two weeks’ dirty washin she has, so the girl can 
worm and loose no time from the tobacco patch. Next time 
the washin comes the shirts we are wearin will be sent. On 
washin days you’ll be scused from goin to the fiels to work 
and that will pay you good for doin ouah washin as you’ll be 
in the shade by the spring.’ 

“‘As the ovahseah turned away, Melissy’s yallah puppy 
dawg run out from undah the bed, and out of the doah bahk- 
in as loud as he could, and the cawn stillery ovahseah and the 
gemmelmen from Ahkinsaw went away.’ 


CHAPTER XIII. 

THE LEAN YEARS. 

i ^ ^T^HE spring months passed into summah time fol- 
i lowin that night scene in the house of Aunt Pol- 
ley. The comin of a strangah to the ole Jackson place now 
alarmed every worker on it, and if the black fiel boss, only, 
was present with the men and wimin in the fiels a watch was 
always set, so that the movements of all comers would be 
known to every black on the place. But there were fewer of 
them to watch and work now; fewer to meet at night in some 
lone place in the woods, or at a prayin meetin at the quarters 
to talk about their people who had been sold to walk away 
in the big road nevah to return, for sence the Ahkinsaw men 
refused to buy Melissy many who heard Aunt Polley tell her 
story, had been sold. Laborers in the thin crops on the once 
rich Jackson place were few now. Work was allers behind 
the seasons. Wheat late sown, cawn weedy. Tobacco, when 
sold was docked for worm holes. Seemed like clovah was 
allers a bad stand, and there were few black hogs to nip what 
clovah did stand. 

“When hah vest time come, and the neighbors' wheat fiels 
were full of cradelahs and the people's happy songs were 
heard there as they cut and bound and shocked the grain, if 
you was on the Quigley place you might casionally hear a 
lone whick whack from a sythe stone, way down in thewoods 
paschah shade, side an ole worm fence, but nevah a song, less 
a lark whimpered as he sailed away into the sky, glad he had 
scaped. For all, sides the lark, it was work, thankless, un- 
paid work. Nobody wanted to sing now, not even the birds 
in the ole cedah trees. Why, even the hahness mules undah- 
177 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


178 

stood, for what dont a hahness mule undahstand, any way, 
that if there was a half crop comin on, they’d git mighty hll 
of it as there were debts to pay and that when there was 
more than a half crop, all the same, when they got to the 
stable they’d find only a half feed in their boxes, anyway, for 
the debt had increased as fast as the crops, so they nevah done 
more than a half day’s work. So the Quigleys, once risto- 
cratic, slouched the weeks along, spectin nothin on Sunday 
and were nevah dissapinted, always hanted by the fear their 
chillens wouldn’t stay on the ole place long nough to share 
in the bread it raised, or dyin, sleep with their fathahs in its 
soff embrace. 

“When a black boy was sent to the cornahs to Dobbins’ 
grocery for the white folks mall, some pore white man from 
Stilery Ridge spendin the day in the shade of the grocery 
porch, as the boy come with his ole straw hat in his hand, 
cause a white man was there to be bowed to, would say, 
‘there’s one of them ragged Yankee niggahs now, shufflin 
along on his shoe tops, dont look like a Jackson used to, does 
he?’ 

“Coin to mill from the Jackson place was a happy holiday 
from work for some tired man and his team, in the good ole 
times. The men folks kept a close count as to who went last 
and whose turn it was to go next time. The lucky man 
whose turn had come would load his shelled cawn for the 
CLillud folks, and the bags of nice white wheat into the wagon 
for the white folks, the night before the start. He would 
have his fi'Iiin worms safe in the ole tin coffee pot, and jess 
before daylight in the mawnin, as the fiel hands were ready 
to hitch and go to work. He would bid them all good by, 
load i.iis dinah box and toss a hand of tobacco into the wagon, 
his wife and all the chillens would scramble for soff places on 
the grain bags in the red wagon, and away they’d all go down 
Locust lane off for Spilman’s watah mill down at the foot 
of this hill, where you soldiahs see the ole mill burn the night 


THE LEAN YEARS 


179 


youall camped there and Mastah Linken’s soldiah boys come 
to free us. The black man would drive up to the ole mill 
doah, and aftah shakin hands with the black millah and all 
the cullud folks waitin their turn for their grindins, willin 
hands and strong backs would help tote the big bags of cawn 
and wheat way through the mill, and up the back stair steps 
in the shed, to the floah above, where they'd empty the grind- 
ins, on what they called the Jackson pile, all ready to be shov- 
eled down through a hole in the loft floah to the grindin 
stones below. Then the man from the Jackson place would 
hitch his team undah the sycamore trees side of the fast run- 
nin mill watah race, his wife and her chillens would carry the 
bait and fishin lines and poles away from the new painted 
wagon goin along the mill race to the great pool above the 
mill dam, jess as happy as theyall could be. There they’d 
lay the baby in the shade of an apple tree, leavin a chile to 
eat down apples and keep the flies away from baby, they’d 
all bait their hooks, and while baby slept they’d fish and fish 
and the fathah and mothah would smoke, and fish and eat 
apples, and hear some othah cullud fishin people tell stories, 
and then they’d doze, only rousin up when they felt a nibble 
at the end of their lines, to renew the worm or spit on the ole 
one for luck and toss it squirmin into the watah, or take in 
anothah fish, one. And so the day passed by, while the 
watahs tumbled ovah the rock dam, the great wheel at the 
foot of the mill race went round, the mill hummed as the 
sun was goin down and the shadows of the trees were reachin 
way out in the glassy watah pool at the dam. 

“And now, the chillens havin eat up all the dinnah a long 
time ago, and all the down apples they could stuff or find un- 
dah the trees, the company’s stories bein nearly all told and 
the grists ready to load, the folks danglin their legs ovah the 
watah, would bait anothah hook, laff, take anothah smoke, 
and bein again called to load their grindin, one by one would 
gathah up the fishin lines, and the fish and the chillens, baby 


180 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


and all, count the bags and chillens into the wagon and drive 
away from the ole watah mill goin up the hill past this house, 
and away on the pike road, gittin home any time aftah night 
set in, and before mawnin begun, in plenty of time to divide 
the big string of fish for breakfas at the patch. 

‘Mt was different now, nobody wanted to go to mill any 
more, they didn’t, though all that was to be done when they 
got there sence the man from Maine put in cawn toters was 
to drive up to the mill, and set your bags of grain inside the 
mill doah, if you had any bags of grain to set in, and if you 
had the mill rebuilt by the carpenter from Maine who mar- 
ried the rich woman at the Jackson place would do all the 
rest of the hard work. The Quigley grist was now cawn, 
allers cawn, and allers slimsy at that, there was nevah no 
wheat any more in the Quigley sacks, for the wheat must be 
sold now. 

'The mothah and her chillens couldn’t go fishin any more, 
they must work in the fiels now. The ragged drivah’s wagon 
mules now went shufflin along the road, allers gittin to the 
mill last, they would. Nobody snoozin at the end of a fish- 
in pole waitin for a nibble at the othah end, noticed a Quig- 
ley any more. And the Quigley girls, use to be Jacksons, 
havin now no spectations lest it was to be sold to pay racin 
debts, were lowed by the young men to go home from the 
meetin all alone! But the greatest cause of sorrow, was, the 
Maashall lands now surrounded the ole Jackson place. It was 
hard nough for the Quigleys to be parted by death, and the 
sellins of the people, though they were both natchel in Kain- 
tucky. These things were to be borne, for the lost ones might 
be met beyond life and slavery again and the broken famblies 
be reunited above, but to see the good fiels goin one by one 
to the Maashalls was more than the pore Quigley cullud peo- 
ple could bear. It was a sayin now among the Quigleys, 
'nothin but death kin break up a Maashall fambly for they 
are nevah sold, and whatevah a Quigley looses, a Maashal 


THE LEAN YEARS 


181 


finds and keeps. 

“The day I am now to tell you about gemmelmen, was in 
hahvest time. The mothahs of the Quigley place had left all 
their teethin, nussin babies with Melissy, who bein the young- 
est mothah, she was, to care for and herd them along with 
her own two lill black things, layin there in the chopped out 
wood cradle on an ole red piny quilt sound asleep among the 
wide awake flies. 

“The mothahs of the patch all went to work in the fiels at 
daylight that day. They would work on till the noon bell 
rung them in, tired, hot, hungry, to stop babies cryin, to 
wash'baby's face and hands, to powdah its chafed flesh with 
cawn meal dustins, to nuss and hug and kiss and cry, long 
with the sittin undah the maple tree shades, mocked by the 
singin birds ovah head in the tree branches till the soundin 
bell commanded them to lay baby down on the cabin floah, 
and makin believe they didn't see its poutin or hear its cryin, 
and cry theirselves, go back to the fiels to work, till the 
quatahs bell told them it was sundown, and time to go home 
and do the evnin work. On that day the mothahs had been 
long gone to the fiels aftah the noonin hour, their babies worn 
out by the heat, eaten by the summah flies, tired of beggin 
Melissy to take themall on her lap at once, to share her own 
babies' dinnah with them, were now layin all around on the 
rough oak floah of Aunt Polley's house, the cryin all forgot- 
ton, they were sound asleep. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS. 


iC as Melissy woke up to rock the cradle by 

▼ ▼ her side, she see Mistus Betsy Jackson Quigley 
steppin high among the sleepin chillens and dawgs as she 
come into the room. Mistus Betsy looked at this one, then at 
that one, and as she punched Meliss’s yallah dawg away from 
her, said: 'Five cole blacks sitch as fathah used to like to 
raise to work on his land, and one, two, three, fouah yallahs. 
He neyah did like them yallahs, though they all make good 
workers, lest they are too white. Five blacks, fouah yallahs, 
that makes nine; one, two, three mighty nigh white, but they 
must be counted. Let me see, five and fouah is nine, and 
then the three whites, that makes twelve; only twelve cullud 
babies in all. 1 wondah what fathah would think, but that’s 
all the place kin feed now, but 1 declare, I done forgot to 
count the two very black babies in youah cradle, didn’t I?’ 
Then as Melissy held her babies in her arms, Mistus Quigley, 
bein carefnl not to soil her green sprigged lawn dress she 
bought before she was married, bent ovah the babies jess 
tetchin them with the tip end of her umbarel, and said: ‘Sis- 
tah and brothah from the ole Jackson stock, now dont you 
put youah big toes in youah mouths and eat them, you’ll both 
need the toes sometime in the cav/n rows, you certainly will. 
You didn’t want to go to no Ahkinsaw with no white gem^ 
melmen did you sweetsies, did you?’ 

"Then Mistus Quigley told Melissy about the pore sick 
white woman at the toll gate house, and about her baby, a 
lill white girl, teethin and stahvin, for the fambly cow had 
stopped givin milk and had no grass ceptin side the turnpike 
182 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS I83 

road, and that the mothah feelin the need of suthin more 
than sprinklin, was thinkin of bein baptized all ovah in the 
mill dam pool. She told Melissy the sciety for the relievin 
of mothahs if they were whites, and raly were married, and 
membahs of the Baptis, had laid the burden of the spirichal 
helpin of the toll gate mothah on the Quigleys. So Mistus 
said, ‘wantin to do all the rale good 1 can, I have eluded to send 
you and the chillens to the rescuin of the white woman and 
her sick chile, and the two dollahs you will earn every month 
will be sent to my daughtah in bodin house school, and Miss 
Betsy Jackson Quigley will be glad to know my ole dinin 
room help thinks so much of her.' 

**Aftah remembahin to caution Melissy about workin too 
hahd at the toll gate home, durin the hot weathah to come 
till the hahvestin was ovah, and to take rale good care of her 
own babies, Mistus said she would send the ministah with his 
caht and take her and her bunnels away that evenin, so the 
pay would start next day, and that of cose she would bespected 
to git suppah for the toll gate people, as they wouldn't work 
if a cullud woman was on the place. Mistus Quigley went 
away, leavin the pore mothah to bow her head among her 
babies, as she thought of the burdens she must now bear. As 
she cried, and wondered what now would become of her ba- 
bies, she heard the evenin bell ringing the tiahd mothahs who 
had raked, bound and shocked the thin wheat straw all the 
long hot day, home at last. The fiel wimin soon unloaded 
from Ministah Samuel's cahtamongthe screamin, cryin, wait- 
in chillens at Aunt Polley's house. Each mothah had sorted 
her babies from the crowd Melissy had been carin for sence 
mawnin light. All the chillens had found mothahs at last to 
care for them, ceptin one cryin lill girl. No one had claimed 
her, her mothah had died a month before. She was watchin 
for mothah to come, but went away with a kindhahted ole 
black woman, whose chillens had all died, or been sold. 

‘The stone ledges about the spring were now crowded with 


184 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


fiel people bathin their faces, and drinkin out of the watah 
godes, mothahs cooin to their lill ones, their tired feet coolin 
in the watah among the maple roots, as baby nursed, the long 
hot houahs it had waited, forgotten. 

''In the log house by the maple spring, Aunt Polley, cryin 
and scoldin, was givin everybody in hearin a piece of her 
mind, and Mistus Quigley, who wasn't there to hear her, in 
pahticulah. Auntie was busy stufRn into one bunnel all of 
Melissy’s cloze ceptin her white dress, and findin a place for 
the cute things for the babies in the same bunnel, and finally, 
the babies bein done with it, foldin the ole red pinies’ blue 
leaves and stalks and all, away in her box moistened with a 
kind grandmothah's tears that would drip, drip as she thought 
of her first boy husband and the grand babies, and how nice 
they had all looked to her as they slept on its patches in the 
past. Melissy’s things and her babies’ few things, had all 
been loaded in the caht waitin for them in front of the house. 
Auntie had shared her beddin cloze with Melissy, though 
dear knows she had nothin she herself wouldn’t need soon as 
the snow blowed and the watah below the spring froze ovah. 

"Tiahd hands of sympatizin neighbors had helped the 
young mothah into the caht with the bunnel, and passed her 
babies to her arms, the mule and the caht were ready to go. 
Many tearful goodbys had been said by friens sharin auntie’s 
sorrow. She had allers shared theirs, and all were sorely troub- 
led, for it was the old sayin among the people at the Quigley 
patch, 'past days and absent cullud Quigleys, nevah return.’ 

"Everybody was cryin ceptin the ministah, the black preachah 
was customed to sorrow, for he was called on to share all his 
people’s sorrows from their cradles to their graves. He 
couldn’t cry, his tears had been fallin all his life time, they 
had dried up, so he smoked his pipe, and hurried the loadin 
as he said whoa to ole Whitey, the mule. 

“At last the caht was loaded. There was Melissy and the 
babies, and the bunnels, and auntie’s ole chopped out wood 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


185 

cradle, she tearfully said she nevah would need now any 
more, so it was loaded in. Nothin to eat was goin along, for 
there was lill or nothin to eat to take away from auntie's 
house. 

'‘Auntie now stood in the stoopy doah where she once 
kneeled as she prayed Gawd in heaven and the gemmelmen 
from Ahkinsaw, for the deliverance of her chile. She was 
tryin to sob out her goodbys. ‘For 1 knows youall will nevah 
come back to my house while I live. All I love are taken 
away sometime, and nevah return. Goodby, dearies, goodby,' 
she said. Then as dear Aunt Polley hid her face in her hands, 
Ministah Samuel Jackson seein everythin ready loaded for 
him to drive away, and wantin his suppah bad for he had 
been haulin wheat bunnels all day, hiked hisself onto a caht 
shaft, stretched his left leg way along it, leaned his tiahd ole 
back up agin the caht's high front, hung his rheumatic right 
leg down to the ground where his black foot, shoeless, allers 
dragged in the dust of the road, from smilin spring time days 
through the summah, to frosty fall, and on to wintah’s clods 
and ceptin when preachin, when the ole man sometime wore 
his shoes. The ole cullud Ministah leanin back to rest, his 
ole straw hat set well back on his gray hairs, where there 
were any hairs, his smokin pipe fast in his shet teeth, now 
drew his drivin rope all knotted, and but a single line, tight 
ovah Whitey's back, and punchin ole Whitey's flank hard 
with his bare elbow, he jirked the knotty line, the strong to- 
bacco leaf smoke raised in wreaths above that gray head at 
the caht front as if the caht wa^ raisin steam for a good start, 
and a long journey, the good man, clampin his black pipe 
stem, said between his fast shet teeth: ‘Git up here mewl, 
now you knows were all ready to go some place, dont you? 
Hurry up, git up here sah, git up, I tole you.' 

“Then ole Whitey feelin that shahp elbow punchin his 
flank, as it had punched for the twenty years past, or more, 
and rathah spectin suthin or othah was the mattah, he looked 


186 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


back ovah his right shouldah, restin like, as he done on cas- 
ions like that, and seein the cullud folks’ preachah zactly in 
the right place on the shaft, he begin to bow his head to 
everybody, sayin, plain as he could, ‘goodby. I’m goin, look- 
out,’ moved his fore feet allround, trampin hard while the 
hind ones stood stock still. The smoke rose from the pipe, 
the bare elbow punched and punched, the rope line jirked as 
the feet pawed fastah, then the hind ones begin to go, the 
caht wheels were now turnin round, the folks were cryin 
‘goodby, take good care of the chillens Melissy, goodby.’ 
Whitey and the caht were actually movin away, when auntie 
cal’ed from the stoopy cabin doah: ‘Hold on, hold on, dont 
go so fast, you’ve forgot suthin,’ and runnin to the caht she 
chucked suthin more in among the babies, the mothah and 
the bunnel, the chillens’ yallah dawg had been dare forgotten. 

“Then as Whitey follered close by, the screakin caht 
wheels waded through the watah below mapel tree springs, 
an ole woman’s cracked voice was heard cryin aftah them: 
‘Goodby, granchillens, goodby dears, youah ole granmothah 
nevah spects you to sleep on her piny quilt no more, she 
don’t, goodby.’ And gemmelmen, the chillens neyah did. 

“Two rows of white locust trees planted by young Cappen 
Jackson’s men side a new rock road worn smooth as a floah 
by the tread of time and the feet of trayel to and from the 
place, had grown till at that time their limbs laced like long 
bony fingahs above that ole wagon way, and that was the 
Jackson locust tree lane of my story. 

“A ridah comin through the big white gate at the turnpike 
road onto the Jackson place, in Whitey’s days, as now, for 
the trees, though once cut down sprouted again, and the road- 
way is still there as when Mistress Betsy received callers, 
would go up the shady lane alive with honey bees if the 
trees were in bloom, and litin at the big flat stone by the 
hitchin post, hitch his ridin horse, and go on undah the cedah 
trees to the ole mansion house doah. Or ridin on past the 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


187 

big flat foot stone at the house gate, leave the mansion on his 
right, passin the apple tree and peach rows on his left, to 
clattah down, a rock ledged, limestone hill where nevah a 
loose stone was allowed to be or a jut that would jostle a 
wheel in Cappen Jackson's days, to the wide spreadin maple 
trees that shaded the torrent of watah forevah flowin from 
the spring where dear ole Aunt Polley tipped the washin 
kittle ovah and the mansion house keep sakes of ole Mistus 
Jackson, then so long dead and gone, went into the dirt 
among the stones. 

‘Mn that day, leavin the grove of maple trees at the spring, 
the roadway passed on between the cullud quathahs, past the 
barns, hemp houses, tobacco prizin sheds, dryin houses and 
feed lots, through the woodland, grass paschahs, to the great 
plow fiels and patches of Cappen Jackson's day, many of 
them at the time of which I'm talkin now belongin to the 
Maashalls. 

‘Jt was past that maple tree spring, up that limestone rock- 
ribbed hill, by the peach and apple orchard on the right 
where the red and yallah apples and the honey bees had all 
the hot day bent the loaded tree limbs in curves to the ripe 
blue grass tops, and the clustahs of white and red striped 
peaches in the rail fence cornahs only waited to be picked, 
that Whitey and his caht went with their load the gatherin 
evenins shades on past a wealth of sprays and bunches of 
blushin ripe fruit jess ready to fall into somebody's hand. 
How rich and drippy with peach juice the evenin air tased to 
ole Whitey and his drivah, as slowly they passed by the loaded 
trees in that orchard fence row. How much Whitey wanted 
to stop to rest by the worm fence, and nip the rich blue 
grass, only to sniff the orchard's sweets, I may not tell. By 
the mansion gate, down the Jackson lane and out onto the 
turnpike road, to finally draw up at the toll gate house, went 
Whitey and the caht, where Melissy and the chillens, their 
bunnel, the wood cradle and their yallah puppy dawg were 
unloaded. 


CHAPTER XV. 

THE TOLL GATE HOUSE. 

f 6 T^HE toll house stood at the cornah of the Jackson 
* and Maashall lands. On the othah side of the 
great cornah stone stretched away the Maashall home place. 
It was to the big house there in sight of the toll house where 
the Maashalls had lived sence they first came from Virginia, 
that my fathah, the son of one of the cullud Maashalls, 
who dared the rich fiels, carried his son that snowy wintah 
day when mothah was dyin. The white boy that met fath- 
ah’s Chrismas giff there at the summah house that day and 
the oflferin, durin all the years past sence then, while they 
were boys, had played in the Maashall fiels on their side of 
that cornah stone. And sence he was married to Melissy the 
boy once given away by his fathah, had gone through the 
gate every day. In fact, 1 was so well known at the gate 1 
had only to tip my hat, bow, and pass on, no one thinkin to 
ask me for a pass. That evenin aftah Ministah Samuel had 
unloaded Melissy at the toll house and gone back to the patch, 
passin the ripe peaches aftah night fall if, indeed, ole Whitey 
did pass them by, I not knowin Melissy had moved, bowed 
as I passed through the toll gate, and had walked nearly to 
Jackson lane gate, when Melissy’s voice called, ‘Siah,0 Siah!’ 
What could it mean, who could have called me.? It certainly 
was my wife’s voice, but what could she be doin there.? I 
I was about to pass on to the lane gate thinkin to wait for my 
wife who would walk with me to Aunt Polley’s, wh.-Ti the 
voice again cailin me 1, see Melissy standin near a lili cabin 
house out in the toll gate yard. Runnin up the turnpike to 
the toil yird fence by the toll house, ! with a bound, lit on 
188 


THE TOLL GATE HOUSE 


189 


the othah side close to a white man layin among the knotty 
poles of a pore white's kitchen wood pile. As I lit among 
the poles the man cried out, ‘who’s that breakln into my bed 
room, go long away from here or I’ll git up to you sah, I will.’ 
I had sturbed the toll gate man’s slumbahs. He was mighty 
drunk. He had been ridin aftah hound dawgs and foxes 
in the hilly, Stillery Ridge country about the spahklin springs 
stlllery, where the ovahseah on the Quigley place learned fah- 
min, and comin home tiahd and hungry as his huntin dawgs 
and his pore horses were, had crawled in among the knotty 
kitchen wood poles, like his horse now wanderin somewhere 
along the pike, supperless, thinkin he was in the fambly 
feathah bed, knowin nothin about the horse or the dawgs. I 
was goin on to say, ‘sorry to sturb you, sah, but I nevah 
knode you was in this room,’ when sittin up on a pole, he 
rubbed his eyes as he said: 

“‘Oh its you is it? look here, black boy, your trapsin 
among the fahms aftah night are you? your ketched less you 
have a white man’s pass tellin what niggah quatahs youse 
lowed to run to aftah night, you are. Jess set right down 
there till I’m ready to take you to jail, or show your pass, 
one? You’r hearin a white man talkin to you haint you? 
Dont you nevah be obstropolous to no white, it dont go in 
Kaintucky, it dont? Lissen to me. I’ve been noticin you. 
Sometimes you walk like a Maashall behind youah red neck 
tie as if you was the ole Kunnel hisself and owned all the rale 
good fahmin lands on both sides of the road from here to the 
ole watah mill. Youve been goin long the big road carryin 
all the.m secon hand cloze with nevah no pass titlein you to 
go, that’s stopped right now. 

“‘Why, I’m most bledged somedays to think your the toll 
collectah hisself, I am. Ha! ha! ha! to think of a cullud man 
a toll collectah in Kaintucky! Don’t you nevah reckon that 
when a black boy goes trapsin along, that its the boy travelin, 
that’s a mistake. In Kaintucky its the white man’s pass that 


190 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

travels and not the cullud man, that shows the whites thority.’ 

“I could see by the light shinin from the kitchen windah, a 
big, fat redheaded woman carryin a pore white faced, skinny 
chile. My! but the chile was pore, and bony as it could be. 
Aftah the big woman had patted the chile on the back prom- 
isin it some suppah milk aftah while, she said: ‘Why pap, 
dont you know all the Maashall cloze this black boy’s wearin. 
Why, 1 do, jess as well. Why, there’s that bawten stoah 
straw hat, that’s the only hat like it that’s gone through the 
gate the summah long, it is. Young Kunnel Maashall, the 
boy’s mastah, toted it through the first time that it went by. 
1 remembah the hat, for some of the Baptis Sistahs’ Sciety 
committee was here inviten me to jine that day, and 1 re- 
membah they lowed the Maashall young man nevah was 
known to wear no bettah hat than his man who allers went 
with him even to see the girls, though he nevah called on 
them, they said. Sides, the boy is the wench’s man the 
black Ministah carried in his caht today to do our work, he 
is.’ 

“But though the sleepy toll man snored while his wife 
talked, he still held on to a stick of wood, and to the black 
boy, seeminly determined to do all his duty as a night watch, 
lookin for niggahs without no pass, and the woman went on 
to say: ‘Pap, now you bettah set the boy tochoppin the wood 
poles your restin on, and nevah mind the pass. We don’t 
want him to pass. 1 reckon the new black wench with the 
two black babies and havin to care for ouah Eugenia Victoria 
too, can’t c'nop all her own fiah wood, sides carry it, nuss the 
three babies herself, and do all the cookin. Then its bread 
day tomorrow, and some washin of Genie’s rags must be 
done. I’ve picked them ovah longs 1 kin. You see pap, if 
your awake, besides bakin bread, washin, nussin three babies, 
and milkin the dryin up cow, the girl will have her hands 
full without choppin no crooked pole wood, she will. And then 
theres the lovin of Genie sides her own squallin blacks, and 


THE TOLL GATE HOUSE 


191 


you know I’m not able to help her.’ 

“I by that time begin to understand that Melissy had been 
sent to work at the toll gate. It was a common thing for the 
Quigleys to send their people to work for neighbors, now 
their own land was gittin so scarce. So, for fear Melissy 
was hired out, 1 was about to say to the woman, I would 
chop the wood, and carry the watah, milk the cow and tend 
to my chillens, if my wife was raly there to do all the work, 
but cuttin me short the woman went on to say: 

‘‘‘1 nevah could see why house, black wimin, for I reckon 
theys wimin, have so many chillens allers in the way of their 
workin anyway. Cose it’s to be spectedthey’l have em, it’s the 
way things are divinely ordered and profitable for the white 
ownahs to have the floah full of crawlin, splutterin blacks but 
though they’s blessins creepin into the ownah’s pocket books, 
on hands and feet, theys mightily in the way of sick people 
who hire the mothahs to do their work.’ 

“The drunken man, now nearly awake, loosin his grip on 
me, took his skinny chile from it’ > mothah’s arms and with 
all the dignity of a country sqiah, said: ‘Mandy Ann, this is 
a portant case. In fac one that volves the very upstandin of 
the cohnah stones of Kaintucky sciety. This boy is rested 
for bein drunk and havin no pass to pass him among the 
cullud quatahs, in his neighborhood aftah night, he is. He 
must shet his mouth about what he is willin to do, for cawdin 
to Kaintucky law he can't be no witness in no cote, less it’s 
agin a black man, so he wont be heard here. The whites in 
inwall cases are the witnesses and the jedges, so you see the 
prisonah at the bah is mighty likely to run up hard agin 
jestice every time, he is. That’s what Kaintucky cotes are 
made for, Mandy Ann. The laws must be forced. Think of 
the fenceless white mothahs and their chillen, Mandy Ann. 
Every white pap must do his whole duty when hese a wit- 
ness or a jedge in a Kaintucky cote, he must. Why there 
haint no turnpike directah in all Kaintucky, drunk or sobah. 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


192 

and they all take suthin, that would scuse a toll collectah for 
lettin a cullud man trapse along the big road, day or night 
with no pass.' 

“Then the mothah took the chile, ‘pap' laid hisself back on 
the poles and was soon sound asleep, and 1 passed on. 

“Melissy met me at the fiah-lit cabin doah with open arms 
and her every day smile, sayin in her own sweet way: ‘Why 
husband your late, didn't you know we were to move into 
ouah new house today.^^ Come in, dear, your welcome.' 
The house was one low ceilind room, a hewn board floah, the 
logs whitewashed, but the plasterin between the logs was 
fallin out, and you could see dare through the roof's broken 
boards. A fiah place with a great stone hearth stretched way 
across one end of the room. There was but one lill windah 
and one doah. Everything in that log walled room had been 
whitewashed, and smoked, and washed nearly white, many 
times, ceptin the fiah hearth and the one glass in the windah 
and the roof above ouah heads. A huge ine crane swung a 
steamin pot ovah a fiah on the hearth. The hearth was 
crowded with pots, skillets and fryin pans, and close side 
them lay the chillens' yallah puppy and his good friends, the 
two babies, they like him, sound asleep, neithah of the three 
as yet knowin no sorrow , no haht aches. While wife was 
gittin suppah for the toll gate people who were yet sobah 
and able to eat, she told me the story of the day as I have 
told it to youall gemmelmen. 

“Then for her sake 1 chopped wood for next day, nevah 
wakin the man layin on the wood poles atall. I milked the 
cow, and fed the horse on nippin grass growin by the side of 
the pike road, and when the washin watah was drawn ready 
for the mawnin, and the suppahless hounds that had been run- 
nin foxes all day on Stillery Ridge were fassened to their boxes 
to whine and beg for food. 1 wrapped the babies' slips about 
them and sittin there by the hearth, lissened to wife's sotT 
voice as she tried to encourage me to hope for bettah things. 


THE TOLL GATE HOUSE 


193 


some sweet day, when the Maashalls would buy and take 
her and the. babies home. The suppah had been carried to 
the toll gate woman, who by that time had tucked the pap 
into his bed in the toll house. Ouah fiah light had grown 
dim and all was gloom in the lill room we found ouahselves 
in, and in ouah hahts as well. We were lissenin to the chil- 
lens deep breathin as they slept. I was wonderin in my soul 
what was to become of them as Quigley property, and fiilled 
with sorrow, for we might be seperated any time, for 1 knode 
the Quigleys were gittin porer and porer as their horse run 
slower and slower. 

''When Melissy, who was kneelin down beside my lap 
restin her head among the babies, jumped to her feet, and 
lookin up the stone chimbly cried out, 'O, Slab, do look 
quick, see the silvah stah!' And lookin up the great wide 
chimbley, sure nough, there was a great bright stah shinin 
down the chimbley ’s open mouth litin up its black stonewalls 
as if they were raly lined with a sheet of brightest silvah. 
The whole chimbley was one beautiful white light as though 
no trace of fiah smoke had evah blackened it. The cabin 
floah was now bathed in the light, while the small flame 
among the coals that had been the light of the room, was so 
dim, it seemed to have gone out. Melissy threw her arms 
about us, pressin her whole fambly at once to her breast as 
she cried out, 'husband, chillens, the bright stah of Bethlehem, 
the stah of deliverance and hope has found us at last. O, 
Josiah, how long 1 have waited for that blessed stah to come 
to us, O, Tm so glad for you and the chillens. Why Josiah, 
Ministah Samuel teachin the folks at mothah's, aftah the men 
from Ahkinsaw were there, said: 'You pore troubled souls, 
all is’nt sorrow here in any life, youall have but to open youah 
eyes to see the stah of hope for it shines at some time cross 
everybody’s pathway. Its the very stah of Bethlehem that 
peard to the wakenin sheherds as they with their flocks were 
on the grass plains of Judeah, and that goin on before guided 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


194 

them to the place where was a pore, tired mothah with 
her boy in a cow stable, the boy who wasbawn to be the only 
hope of a world that nevah did know where the souls of men 
come from, or where they were goin until he come. So that 
boy, found by the shepherds followin the stah, was to be the 
hope of men because he was to tell them Gawd was his 
fathah and he was their brothah, now you see the fambly 
connection. 

‘‘‘For mind you, Josidh, Ministah Samuel said that every- 
body on earth, cludin cullud people's mastahs, are brothahs 
and sistahs, good or bad, lost away from their homes, they 
are tryin to git back to heaven, though ouah Christian ownahs 
are fearsome the African is further away than they and may 
have no right there. But Ministah Samuel says their fears 
are not well founded for the stah shines once for everyone on 
earth , set there in the sky that seein it, the homeless might 
have hope that some day they will walk back home into 
the ole gahden gate. The good ministah says, evah sence the 
sheperds follerin the stah while they lissened to the music of 
heaven found the young chile, the Christ, and heard the 
voice from among the stahs it has been so, that if the stah 
of hope stands still right ovah where a young chile lays, be it 
pore as was the baby Christ, Hisself, havin no 
place of its own to lay its head ceptin on its mothah's breast, 
or as rich as a slave ownalTs chile in Kaintucky, that that lill 
one is from that minit a chile of hope, it is, and that jess as 
the light of the stah is seen, the mothah has only to hope for 
good things for the chile, and then go long trustin in Christ, 
for some time in the life of the baby the good hoped for, less 
its money or property or othah riches, though the Fathah in 
heaven kin give even all that, for its all Hissen, will all shore- 
ly come to pass, for the good ministah said: ‘The Lawdnow 
in heaven rememberin how he was once a pore child Hisself 
down on this earth, loves all lill chillens, hungry and ragged, 
rich and fine, of every kindred, and every tongue, he does.' 


THE TOLL GATE HOUSE 


195 


So that takes in ouah babies, Josiah dear, don't it? And so, 
though the ministah nevah said Christ's mothah was a slave, 
yet we havin at last seen the guidin stah, we will trust in the 
Christ who like ouah babies was once in a mothah's arms 
here, but now is in glory land among the silvah stahs.' 

“Then Melissy, while the chimbley was as white as a bank 
of snow in the stah's full light, and with not any soil or stain 
of fiah atall about it, sobbed into my ear: 

“‘O, Gawd, Fathah of ouah souls, and of the Christ, ouah 
hope, we to Thee hope, ouah lill chillens here, belongin to 
Sqiah Quigley some day, may gathah with them they love 
about their own cabin hearth, freed from the bondage of 
slavery that sent them to this one to-day, and this we ask for 
Jesus sake.' 

“Melissy had hardly done wishin when the white woman's 
voice rung out, sayin: ‘Melissy Quigley, 1 wondah if you'r 
all asleep so early. Your white baby girl Eugenia Victoria, 
is cryin for her suppah, pore pet, she's most stahved.' When, 
as Melissy went for the chile the silvah stah light faded from 
the fiah place, and the toll gate woman went on to say: ‘I'm 
so bledged to the Baptis sistahs for sendin a cullud mothah to 
nuss my chile, she has nevah had enough suppah in all her 
life. 1 spected the sistahs to send you a week ago. 1 told 
them 1 would pay the two dollahs every month and maybe 
jine the Baptis chuch myself, as my husband belongs. Now 
dont you cry deary for black mammy has come at last, she 
wont let her black babies scrouge you out from your own 
place, they'll soon learn you're white.' 

“While the mothahs were talkin and talkin, my babies lay 
eatin their fingahs waitin for their mothah, but wehn she 
come she had the squallin, fightin white girl baby in her arms 
and they begin to cry for their places too, and the closetah 
the white lips nudged themselves into the black mammy's 
breast the louder the black lips yelled. 

“As Melissy set down by her chilien a flame of fiah shot 


196 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

up from the coles on the hearth. The skinny, pore blue face 
of the white chile, with its stahved lips now plain to be seen 
was diggin into my babies’ place at their own mothah’s 
breasts, its scraggy legs kicked its bony toes from out its 
dirty rags. The babies layin on my lap begin fightin each 
othah, almost fallin from my knees among the skillets and 
pots on the hearth. Then the white one’s throat, its nose, and 
seemed its ears and eyes were full of the nussin. It was 
chokin, gaspin for breath. Its onetime stahved white face 
was now black as was the lill ones tryin to squirm off my 
lap. Melissy pounded the stranglin chile’s back, she jumped 
it on her knees, there was a splosion! All the suppah, waited 
for so long, flew ovah the pots into the ashes, and that stahv- 
in babe, its face now white as any ole Jackson napkin sweet 
and fresh from Aunt Polley’s hands, stared out of its big hol- 
low eyes straight on my face. Was the chile dead.^ Iremem- 
bah thinkin, pore stahvin beggah, like all the white race, it 
depends on a slave for its livin, let it die. 1 may have 
thought it all aloud, but I soon see the scrawny chile wasn’t 
dead atall, but already to begin the suppah all ovah again and 
as my own chillen still cried Melissy pressed the snugglin 
white babe close to her breasts. Well, gemmelmen, it was a 
trial for me, but as often as I come to this part of the story, 
now, I look at these grown up people here, the black babies 
of that day, and thank Gawd they were called by him to give 
their suppahs to the strangah girl baby, for I have learned, 
‘that as often as ye do it to one of the least of these my chil- 
lens, ye do it to Me and that the stah of hope does evah 
shine for us.’ I’m Wedged to say to you, I cursed and swore 
as Melissy said to me, ‘Hush, hush Josiah, dont talk about 
killin the drunken fathah of this pore stahvin babe. He who 
as a babe lay in His mothah’s arms in Bethlehem’s mangah, 
like this chile was a visitah from heaven, and hears all you 
say, like this babe, so with that in Bethlehem, there was a 
man who would have put it to death, but it was safe in its 


THE TOLL GATE HOUSE 


197 


mothah's arms. Supposin as you curse and swear, Him of 
Bethlehem, He who as a carpentah's boy gave a pore slave 
though chained to a king's horses, a sip of cold watahto drink 
as the horses moved on undah the lash draggin the prisonah 
to a prison hulk, gave him to drink at the risk of his own 
life. Suppose that carpentah's son, lookin this way as you 
rave, who gave him to tase of the well in Bethlehem's 
square, should give these to tase of the watah of eternal 
life, and take them stid of this white angel to his own self, 
what would you be able to say? Sides, and who can tell, 
the soul of this helpless baby now cudlin in my arms, with 
that of the once baby of Bethlehem, may be part of the soul 
the creative force of Gawd's universe even a part of His- 
self, ah Siah, who can know, and why should we try to 
know? 

'‘‘Why, Josiah dont you remembah hearin Ministah Samuel 
tell his people what Jesus is to say to the good and kind- 
hahted of earth, as standin sides the gate of paradise a great 
throng of black folks and a few white people mixed among 
the blacks come journeyin along from the north and south 
and east and west roads, all pintin heavenwards, but who as 
theyall remembah their lives down below hahdly hope to go 
in ceptin by His own grace. When He, seein them climbin 
the hill that rises up, up out of the mists of earth tords the 
golden gate, all foot sore and weary takin pity on them, will 
cry, ‘go in, go in to the golden gate of the Fathah's house.' ' 

“Melissy said, ‘I'll tell you Siah what Ministah Samuel says. 
He says, ‘Jesus the ownah of all the cattle on all the hills of 
earth, and the ruler of all the grassy plains of heaven, will 
say, when we black people git there, if we've been kind to 
all the pore white and black souls met here on the earth, and 
if hungry, given them to eat, and thirsty given them to drink: 
‘Come right along ye pore black souls, slaves of white Christ- 
tian's of earth, come enter in, all the bittah tears sown among 
the rocks and briahs of slavery by My people on earth, have 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


198 

been gathahed from among its sorrow moistened clods, to fall 
as graceful dews on a full crop of happiness waitin yourhah- 
vestin in heaven. Go in, go in, all these lands belong to youah 
Fathah,' husband, you'll want to go in and reap, and bind, and 
shock on youah own Fathah’s land, wont you dear?^ 

‘‘1 was about to say, ‘why Melissy I will go in with you and 
the chillens when I see youall linin up at the gates.' But wife 
said, ‘you nevah stopped to think that Jesus when He was 
blessin lill ones as they were gathered about Him, spected 
black people as well as the whites to hear what he said, did 
you.' Then as the white chile wakin up nussed itself full 
once more, Meliss}' pressed so close to me the babies on my 
lap almose fell into the ashes sound asleep as they were, and 
in that soff voice 1 have allers loved, said, ‘Josiah dont you 
remembah hearin about the bible readin, where speakin of lill 
chillens Christ said as he blessed them, ‘Of sich is the king- 
dom of heaven.' ' 

“ Melissy 's wet cheek pressed mine, the white chile was now 
asleep, as wife said, ‘It may be that we may yet be sold away 
from each othah we do not know, we cannot know what will 
become of us, even the mastahs here may all forgit your wife 
and your babies. Yet if this lill one, when it gets to heaven 
shall remembah our lil! ones, and that we gave her to drink, 
who knows dear but the Christ, no black is allowed to read 
about out of the bible in Kaintucky, as He sees His angel com- 
in home to Him and remembahs this night passed in my 
arms, may say, ‘now saved soul, go call your black friens to 
a feast of love, for they did it also to Me when they cared 
for you.' O, I know you want this chile when in that home, 
when she hears your name and mine spoken here below, to 
remembah us while we carry our own burdens and the white 
man's burdens along life's hard roads. And have been gone 
so long from this cabin, the whites livin at the toll gate nevah 
knode us atall, and all the Quigley lands and black people 
have been sold to strangahs, you'll want the voice of this pore 


THE TOLL GATE HOUSE 


199 


one to be heard here among the hills and plains of bondage, 
cryin, 'where's Melissy and the chillens? Where are they 
who gave of their own blood to enrich mine, and, too, gave 
me to drink at their fountain opened up for their own pore 
slave chillens. Go ye, and as a happy fambly delivah them 
from bondage and set them free.' Of cose you'll want a 
frien in heaven like that, Siah. It may be all a providence 
that we have come here to meet that good frien, who can 
know? 

"'Ministah Samuel says we must nevah deny, when we do 
not know. So you will say, 'yes, 1 hope to hear that call.’ 
And so, because of the good angel's leadins, though we as 
blacks may not find heaven way up yondah open to us as 
some of the white folks are fearsume we wont. And they 
cant be spected to sociate with us even there, if we do, yet, if 
because of the leadins of. the sweet angel's hand we 
press in ouahs to-night, we shall some day all be free here, 
nevah to be seperated again, ceptin by death, that, though the 
whites may not be willin for us to go with them to heaven, 
up yonder, there'll be heaven enough for us here. For to be 
free, will be freely to love each othah, and to love each othah 
here, without any shadow of any seperation hangin ovah us, 
ceptin that followin death, the death of the body, will for us 
be heaven.' 

"And then, as her lips met my own, 1 said, 'yes Melissy, 
yes, to be loved by them we love is to be in heaven, and we 
wait the call.' 


CHAPTER XVI. 

GENIE. 

i T^HAT first night, that awful night we spent in. the 
^ toll gate cabin, had long been a memory to me. 
Summah and wintah had passed only to be followed by spring, 
and so the seasons went by. The babies of that first night at 
the cabin hearth had grown out of ouah arms as the year^ 
went by. They were great big chillens now. The chillen's 
yallah dawg, with the rest of the fambly, had grown dare into 
ouah hahts with the white baby who was now one of us. 
We loved them all. Melissy, patient, careful, was still carin 
for all and doin the house work at the toll gate house for the 
two dollahs a month, the money all goin to the young lady 
bodinhouse school, not a cent evah stoppin in Melissy’s hand. 

^‘We had learned to call the white girl ouah own. Genie, 
we called her, was now a golden haired, bright eyed, rosy 
cheeked girl of three years, but that wasn't old enough for 
her to know that we were black and she white. She nevah 
in all her life did know the cullah of the breasts that missed 
her from death to life. 

‘The toll gate man, great hahted as he was, when sobah or 
drunk, but his own worst frien always, still follered his pack 
of hound dawgs on the chase among the cliffs of Stillery 
Ridge, rested his horse at the stillery at the foot of the hill, 
and on a hot trail rode ovah the sunken graves in the Baptis 
berryin ground at its top. 

“The day I’m now to tell you about, gemmelmen, was an- 
othah bright warm Sunday in the middle of hay hahvest. 
Weall, ceptin myself, though we had often thought the 
Maashalls were about to buy Melissy and the chillens, were 
200 


GENIE 


201 


still Quigley property. The Maashalls were still try in to buy 
that property. The Quigley promise to sell to them had 
nevah been withdrawn, so, though sick from waitin, and often 
cryin about it, hayin once seen the stah light in the chimbly, 
we still hoped on and on. 

‘The day was as hot as was that day when ole whitey 
backed his cart up to Aunt Policy’s doah and takinin Melissy 
and her fambly set them down at the toll gate house, mothah, 
babies, yallah puppy and all. It was hahvest time once 
more. The Maashall meadow fiel close by the toll house 
was full of new mown hay layin in long lines like waves on 
a surnmah sea shore. The very air was drippin with 
meadowy sweets. The call of Bob White from the top rail 
for his mate, cause he couldn’t find her nest since the mowers 
mowed the hay away, was all about us. The cry of the cat 
bird along the bottom rail, the rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp of the 
green locust’s file as he shahpened his teeth, come to us from 
ovah in the locust trees side the lane. The lazy Sunday air 
was crowded with restful sounds while the heat waves eddied 
across the new mown hay, and the great white eldah blooms 
nodded by the vine twisted fences in the surnmah air. The 
sky was blue, fortunately for the hay there was no promise 
of rain. 

“We, Melissy and me, were sittin on the broken floah of 
the ole tummel down cabin porch in the toll house yard, 
where we still worked for the mission sciety. We had been 
watchin the chillen’s great big yallah dawg’s red mouth, open 
wide, as his great teeth seemed ready to bite the tendah flesh 
of ouah black chillen layin fast asleep. When Eugenia Vic- 
toria, in her snow white lace trimmed slip, made by Melissy’s 
own hands, or bought with Maashall pocket money, come 
cryin to her, and layin her cheek on her black mammy’s 
lap, was soon sound asleep. Genie’s face was pale, her lips 
dry and hard, her breathin slow and weak. As 1 remembah 
now, her breathin grew weaker and weaker while she lived. 


202 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


^^Sence that first night we had taken the best of care of the 
baby girl we had been sent to love and finally part from. Her 
loss was to be the first great sorrow of our lives. We laid 
her, white lace slip and all, on the lill straw bed in the cornah 
of the smoky cabin room where first I met her, sayin nothin 
to her mothah, who remembahin her promise to the sistahs, 
had gone to Baptis preachin that day. Genie’s pap wasn’t 
at home, so we collected the tolls of passers through the gate, 
less they refused to stop to pay a cullud man, which was 
sometimes the case with the pore whites. 

“Durin the night 1 went to Dobbin’s grocery cornahs to 
call a doctah, and the next mawnin at break of day the doc- 
tah set his saddle bags on the cabin ax-hewn puncheon floah. 
He said Mrs. Dobbins, one of his best customahs, was porely, 
that he had been with her all night. Doctah set his shiny 
silk hat side his saddle bags by Melissy, who had held Genie 
on her lap the night long. 

“Doctah cut off anothah chaw and spit ovah the pots on 
the hearth into the ashes, and puttin his hands deep into his 
janes trousah pockets looked a long time at the white chile 
on Melissy’s lap, and said: The dare skin of the girl shows 
a black mammy nussed her. What youall reckon is the mat* 
tail with her? What you been lowin her to eat? Spect 
you let her trapse round in the hot sun all day yistidy. 
Some people should nevah have no chillens to neglect, they 
shouldn’t. Youalls ole enough and black enough seems to 
me by this time, to have some sense part of the time at least, 
when lill chillens are round, seems to me you are. You 
ought to know that no white chile kin stand what a cullud 
one kin.’ Doctah then kneeled side of Mellssy’s lap, placed 
his ear on Genie’s breast, lissened a long time, and restin his 
head on his hand seemed lost in thought. Doctah parted 
Genie’s lips, admired her mouthful of white teeth sayin, 
‘there’s nothin like a black woman’s milk, it makes fine teeth 
for white sciety people to carry, and they last long aftah 


GENIE 203 

they's willin to kiss the lips of their wrinkled ole black mam- 
mies, whose nussin made the fine teeth possible, they do. 

‘“Now here’s a white woman’s white chile, that has had a 
black mammy. Her white mothah was porely, lazy, or both; 
the chile was about to de stahved, when providence, or the 
money one, and they're the same kind friens to them who 
can attract them, stepped in, and black breasts nussed her; the 
result has been red cheeks, a prettier blue in the eye because 
of the dark shadin borrowed from the black mammy. Here’s 
a once lilly white forehead shaded to an amber; she has gold- 
en hair, and a mouth filled with teeth white as snow. If it 
was’nt for the faint trace of white blood left in her veins, af- 
tah the nussin by a black woman she should live to be a hun- 
dred years ole, but she wont. Like tendah plants the whites 
withah in the heat, while a black man must be sold away 
from his people and sent to the cotton raisin states to kill him. 

“‘It all makes a doctah of medicine mighty tiahd these 
days to hear doctahs of divinity sputin among themselves 
about the souls of white and cullud people. Every medic 
knows, if he’s a reglah, and they’s the only ones that knows 
anything for certain, that whites and blacks are animals, like 
that yallah pup smellin for applejack in my saddle bags is; 
only animals, preachin or no preachln. Though some animals 
are more intelligent; and so more useful than are othahs. 
Futher than this, there's no money for a doctah of medicine, 
there may be though for a preachah, less he lives to be ole, 
or he dies and his ole wife gits pore, and she may be pore 
nough while the Lawd’s people all about her have plenty of 
scraps and crumbs for their dawgs to pick up. Doctahs of 
medicine do all they can for patients, as do doctahs of divin- 
ity, like them they are the creatures of immutable law. We 
all do what we can for othahs but neither can know what the 
life principle is, it all belongs to the unknown. All that can 
be done, is to try to assist the body to retain its unknown 
guest, the life, the soul.’ 


204 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


“We had placed wet cloths on Genie’s breast, had given 
more of the drops and anothah powdah. Doctah waited to 
see what the effect would be. Then he rose to go, sayin as 
he repacked his saddle bags, ‘you might give the chile the 
powdahs and drops every half houah, place a mustahd plastah 
on her breast runnin ovah to the left side, but dont let it blis- 
tah. Don’t give her any cold watah at all. If I’m passin 
this way I’ll call, though 1 don’t think you’ll need a doctah 
very long.’ 

“Aftah the doctah had gone away we told the white folks 
how very sick Genie had been. That the doctah had called 
and had gone. We hunted all ovah the toll house and aunt- 
ies for mustahd, but could find none; she had eaten the last of 
it on the last picketed meat the ovahseah could let them have 
from the Quigley smoke house. But auntie sayin she was 
as good as any doctah, give me some fiah smoked gahden 
herbs that had hung above the fiah place for a whole 
year, and she knode them to be jess the stimulent Genie 
should have, she said. So, as 1 couldn’t find any mustahd 
for a drawin, 1 took the smoked herbs, and fillin a watah 
bucket at maple tree spring, hurried back to Genie and give 
her all the cold watah she could drink, stid of the gahden tea. 

“That aftahnoon, Genie’s pap come into the cabin house 
and kissin his pet good by until night, went away with his 
dawgs, cause there was to be a gatherin at Stillery Ridge. 
But aftah mountin the filley barebacked and though the 
hounds were crazy to go, pap lighted, and hitchin his mare 
to the fence, come back, and takin the sick chile in his arms 
again, kissed her by by, promisin to hurry back. 

“We bathed Genie’s face, and breast, and moistened her 
red lips all that aftahnoon, not evah forgittin the powdahs 
and drops, without seein a gleam of life in her face. Nevah 
for a minit was the wet cloths allowed to get warm. We 
called and called to her, but she slept on. All that evenin the 
white mothah collected the tolls and watched down the road 


GENIE 


205 


for her chile's pap, sometimes hearin the hound dawg's bark, 
but he didn't come. Into the night we watched and waited 
but the fathah nevah come. 

“Once Genie opened her eyes, looked all about the lill 
room, wiped the tears from Melissy's eyes and in a faint voice 
called: ‘Come on papa, come on,' then sank back on Melissy's 
arm unconscious, and we knew the lights in her eyes were 
burnin out. The mawnin come at last and with it the doc- 
tah; he looked ovah worked. He said Mrs. Dobbins, Grocery 
Dobbins' fifth wife, would be laid side the balance of his com - 
panions on Stillery Hill that aftahnoon, and the Dobbins 
grocery will be closed durin the day. 

“That night Genie was no bettah atall, she lay insensible 
most of the time, and when awake hahdly knew us. We 
carried the sick chile into its mothah and togethah the moth- 
ahs cried for the fathah to come. The chillen's yallah dawg 
which had been left to watch the othah chillen while we were 
in the toll house, comin in, stood lookin at the still face on the 
straw bed; there was a shahp knock at the doah of the room. 
We thought somebody was in a hurry for the toll gate to be 
onened that they might go through, as it had been shet for 
the night, or the pap had come at last, so the cryin white 
mothah run to open the doah, when who should step in but 
the Quigley ovahseah hisself. 

“He said, without noticin the sick chile, he had come for 
the hiah of the black woman. The white mothah asked him 
to come to-morrow, sayin her chile was sick and her pap was 
not at home, but the ovahseah thinkin once often nough to 
call for two dollahs, said so, and that he couldn't wait, and 
had ordahs to carry the two dollahs along with him or the 
workin girl one. The white woman had put the money ta- 
ken durin the day, in the toll company's locked till, it was all 
to be put in, as each passer was requiahd to pay her jess the 
right sum for the toll. The money was locked up. My 
pocketbook was at the Maashalls', the white woman had no 


206 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

money, so it was dare, though Genie was sick, and as we 
feared, to death, yet Melissy must go with the ovahseah. 

“The man was sayin to Melissy, she must git her things 
and her own chillens and to be mighty quick about it, and 
had turned to the turnpike money box as if to open it, know- 
in, I thought, a black man’s evidence wouldn’t be heard agin 
a white man, and was about to lay hold of it, when Melissy 
with her chillen’s dawg passed out the back doah. She had, 
he thought, run away. As the doah slambed in his face he 
called aftah the runnin woman, threatenin to set the blood 
hounds aftah her less she come back, failing to notice a black 
man there ready to mash him into cawn whiskey; he was al- 
most that anyway. But while he yelled to the woman out- 
side the doah, and the black man stood ready to convert him 
to a familiah spirit, Melissy stepped back in the doah. 

“In her hand was a long blue yarn stockin, presented 
to her by Mistus Clarrisy Maashall, the Chrismas 
before, chuck full of good things and some money to start a 
savin bank for the chillens. It was now tied fast with a red 
string so it couldn’t be robbed. Melissy nevah said a word, 
but cryin hard as she could, she kneeled on the floah side the 
chile’s sick bed, untied the stockin string, and there rolled out 
of the bank vault onto a big oak floah knot, all the silvah tips, 
and bits, and smooth levies, and great big round coppah cents 
John Clay Maashall hisself and Mistus Clarrisy had given the 
babies for their keepsakes, less sometime they must have 
suthin to eat or wear, if the racin horses lost. 

“Well, all that wealth went jinglin onto the oak knot out 
of the chillen’s bank, it did. My, it was a nice pile! The 
eyes of the pore white snapped, and his long, bony fingahs 
clutched as he see so much money piled up. Aftah the mon- 
ey was all piled up on the floah knot, A'lelissy pulled and 
pulled at a string, and there rolled out of the bank, strung 
on a string, a great big smooth silvah quatah dollah, it 
was a present from dear ole Kunnel Maashall’s own hands. 


GENIE 


207 


The wimmin now kneelin togethah while I cared for the dy- 
in chile, counted, and they counted the bank's money, ovah 
and ovah, so as to be right sure and every time found the 
bank had two dollahs and twenty five cents, countin the 
quatah with the red string run through for a full quatah, 
though its edges had been all gnawed and creased by the lill 
teeth it had cut. So Melissy lowered the teethinsilvah quatah 
way down in the blue stockin bank for anothah start in the 
bankin business, and risin to her feet, claspin her hands 
in the very face of the ovahseah, cried out: Take the 
chillen's keepsake money, Mistah Ovahseah, its all we have, 
there'll be nothin left them if sqiah's horses loose next 
time, take it, but O, let me stay! The money will be ready 
for you next time you come, and the pap will be at home. 
O, don't take me now, for the mothah may faint and the 
chile have to cross the watahs of death all alone!' Be- 
fore the ovahseah could stoop to the oak knot to count the 
pile of money, the chillen's yallah dawg made a lunge for it, 
as the chillens had lamed him to do, and grabbed his mouth- 
ful off the coppah cent pile, but at my command he laid 
them all down again where he got them. But to be sure of 
the count the wimin now kneeled and counted and counted 
the money, findin the yallah dawg hadn't swallowed any of 
the bank's money atall, every fip and bit and cent of the 
two dollahs were still there. Then the ovahseah, not willin 
to take the count of the dawg and wimin, he piled and piled 
in large and small piles all the fips and cents and smooth levies 
this way and that way, and aftah carefully countin the piles 
all ovah once more, he declared only one single dollah and 
six bits were there. Then to satisfy myself, not willin to 
take the ovahseah's count, 1 kneeled with Melissy by the oak 
knot treasure and counted each pile, findin only one dollah 
and six bits to the bank's credit. Whatevah fips and coppahs 
and levies Melissy first poured onto the floah, the sum now 
lacked two bits of payin Melissy's hiah. Then though both 


208 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


the white and black woman declared they counted right the 
first time, Melissy takin hold of the dirty red string hangin 
from her dress pocket, slowly pulled from the depths of it 
the smooth two bit piece, tooth marks and all, and cryin, laid 
it on the pile. The ovahseah sayin suthin about the trouble 
he was havin clectin for hiahd people’s time them days,gath- 
ahd up all the money, string and all, and went away, leavin 
Melissy to cry ovah the sick chile who couldn’t know as she 
then lay, how much the chillen’s bank in which she was a 
shareholder, had lost. 

“Aftah houahs of cryin by the wimin because of the mon- 
ey loss, and the sinking of the sick chile, 1 carried her back 
into the cabin and set by the hearth where she had played 
her life away. I was lookin at the chubby white face and the 
starin eyes on my lap, remembahin the scrawny, blue lipped, 
drawn face, and bony fingahs that once took my sleepin chil- 
len’s place at their mothah’s breasts. 1 remembahd too, what 
Melissy had said about an angel someday callin from its place 
in heaven for the black babies it once met on earth at an ole 
stone hearth. I was wonderin, if, when that voice called 
from the clouds for the black mammy and her chillens, 1 
would be forgotten, cause I had done so lill for the angel that 
all unawares to us come to our pore table to satisfy its hun- 
gah and slake its earthly thirst, when the chile rose right 
up on my lap, a pair of soff fat ahms went about my black 
neck, a cold face pressed my hot cheek, a last breath gently 
fanned my ear, and I heard the sweet angel as she was goin 
away, say, ‘come on papa, come on papa, c-o-m-e o-n.’ 

“The white ahms slowly unwound from my neck, the icy 
cold lips fell away from my cheek, a lill form cuddled down 
into Genie’s place on my lap as if for a sweet sleep as it had 
so often done before, and all was still, still. The stahs peep- 
ed down the wide chimbley’s mouth, and went away. Not 
one ray of hope remained, Genie was dead. The white and 
black mothahs’ wails could not bring back the life gone out. 


GENIE 


209 


‘‘Sittin there in the darkness, for the fiah had burned out 
ceptin a flicker on the lone back log, I could hear the faraway 
hound dawgs cryin among the cedah cliffs along Stillery 
Ridge. They must have known baby was dead. Plainer and 
louder they cried as they neared home. 1 hugged the dead 
body to my haht, and whispahd into the lifeless ear, ‘papa 
dear is comin home, O, why didn't you wait for him?' 

“Aftah a long time I heard the pack of hounds jump the 
fence. Then there was the soff steps of muffled feet out- 
side about the house and on the lill porch, and whines as if 
for food. Then I knode the doah was full of tiahd, hungry 
dawgs. I could hear them snifffin the air, but the hand that 
had so often fed them was chill and still. Aftah a long time 
one lean, long ole dawg seemin to have fallen from the air by 
my side, it had come in so noislessly, set right down by baby 
and uttered a long low wail. Dark as it was 1 could see it 
lick baby's dead hand as it hung at my side. Then anothah 
dawg set down on the ole hearth, kissed the dead hand and 
soon the room was filled with the cryins of the pack of hound 
dawgs. A tongue of fiah shot up from the back log, and 
there all about that lill dead girl who had fed and loved the 
hound dawgs, and had them for her pets, set her mute friens. 
Then anothah dawg, and still anothah kissed the hand, and 
leavin the ole mothah hound, and the chillen's dawg with the 
dead, all went out and there come to us a sound as if from 
afar ovah cliffs and fiels, a soff sweet sound. It was the wail 
of the chile's dawg friens mournin her loss. Then as the 
dawgs on the porch opened a way for us, we carried the body 
surrounded by their wailins, past a man layin sleepin at the 
wood pile— the pap had come home. 

“The next mawnin, invitin me into the lill room in the toll 
house where the body dressed by Melissy for the grave lay 
on its lill bed, she removed the cover from the form we could 
see barely hidden by the stark white sheet thrown ovah 
it. Standin out from the pillow was a white face; the eyes 


210 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


once blue were closed now by a white ribbon tied ovah them. 
The Ovahseah had taken all the coins away. The white face, 
as full and round as in life, was framed in its own tresses 
of long soff golden hair that went streamin down ovah 
the white laced Sunday slip Melissy’s hands had made and 
her money bought, when she spected the Baptis sistahs to 
send for Genie to go to Sunday school, but, though the nice 
white ribbon -trimmed slip was so pretty, and Genie looked 
so sweet in it, the sistahs nevah come for the chile atall. So 
she nevah got to go to any Sunday school or wear the slip, 
at least on earth. As 1 am talking to you, railroad gemmel- 
men. I’m thinkin about that rose bud on the still breast. I 
think now 1 nevah see anything so lovely, not even the cro- 
cus blooms Baby Clarrisy Maashall come home with, 1 dont. 
Mistus Maashall’s own dear hand once give Melissy a white 
rose slip to raise, and there on the chile’s breast was its lone 
white bud, only showin, it had intended sometime to open 
into a rose, pore wood smoked yallahd white rose bud, we 
had watched and waited so long to see bloom. Lovin hands 
had plucked it while I slept. Its yallahd white silk folds were 
to decay on the lill breast that had so often heaved with de- 
light as the dead girl had watched it grow. That tiny rose 
bud, grasped by the chubby hand that had caressed it in life, 
was by it to be held fast, as Melissy said, to remembah us by 
in heaven. Alas, we possessed only a fadin bud of all that 
summah’s promised bloom. 

“The lill room of the toll gate house used as a kitchen was 
now darkened. A red pine coffin box had been placed there 
on chairs, so the sistah’s Baptis sciety who had been asked to 
come and fetch some lill Sunday school girls dressed in white 
with them to sing, could have the very best room in the 
house. The present ministah havin a pintment to speak at a 
chuch picnic in a neighborin fiel of labor, and as the baby’s 
mothah had only been sprinkled would not be there. So the 
ole man that use to be preachah, had kindly come, as he said 


GENIE 


211 


as he bent ovah the still white face nesseled down in the red 
box, to say for his Mastah jess as he once said, ‘of 
sich is the kingdom of heaven/ Melissy and me, not invited 
in the house where the white folks were to be, stood outside 
the wide open kitchen doah where we could see the lost chile. 
Standin there watchin Genie we heard the good ole man say, 
‘I will not wait longah for the lovin aistahs of the chuch to 
come, it's gittin late now, and Tm to ficiate at the Dobbins 
funeral this aftahnoon, the regular ministah bein away. I 
kin only pray for heaven's choicest blessins on the haht of 
every one who has been kind to this dead chile, and thefam- 
bly. I specially pray for them who hoped to nuss the dead 
chile to the beauty of womanhood and who, 1 am told, sent 
the black mammy for that purpose — vain hope. Kind Mis- 
tress Quigley, lovin sistahs of the chuch, all their love and 
sacrifices were in vain. The fairest flowahs of earth, the 
brightest, best leaves often fall in the summah's soflF breath 
before winter's blasts whiten and sears the face of earth. 
Even in the spring's springing life they withah and die. They 
wait not for the drouth's hot breath of July. So with the 
buds and blooms and leaves of mortality, even while loved 
ones admire them, they droop, fall, and are gone. 

“‘I kin only say to the fathah, look on the face of the lost 
one, who come to youah house to cheer and bless you in life. 
Alas, the happy opportunity offered you is past and gone. 
The life gone out can be but a memory now. Still may it 
be sweet and blessed.' Then the ole ministah who now was 
workin round for a livin, lined a hymn, but as no one there 
could sing, the good man said the services would be eluded at 
the grave. 

“A man from Stillery Ridge, a friend whose dawgs run 
foxes with the weepin fathah's dawgs, soon as the ole minis- 
tah was done talkin and prayin, closed the lid of the red box, 
hidin the waxen face from Melissy's sight for 
evah less a sweet face like it lives to smile in our souls af- 


212 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


tah the death of its earth body. The cullud wagon drivah, 
who like us had been waitin outside the house among the 
hound dawgs whimperin around, took the tail gate from his 
fahm wagon bed, and goin into the house, with the help of 
the man from Stillery Ridge, carried the red box out and 
shoved it into the fahm wagon among the straw. The black 
drivah of the mules now climbed to his seat in the wagon, 
the frien from Stillery Ridge took a seat on a board behind 
the shoveler, on boards above the red pine box in the straw, 
then the ministah seein all was ready, and everybody that 
was to go seated in the fahm wagon, climbed ovah a hind 
wheel hisself and set close side the dead chile’s pap. When, 
seein that somebody had left the end gate leanin against a 
wheel, and fearin the stained red coffin box might slide 
out of the wagon bed goin up Stillery Hill to the berryin lot 
by the chuch, Melissy cried out, ‘O, dont go, dont go.’ We 
pushed the red box further in among the straw and feet, fas- 
sened the end gate with the danglin rope end and all now 
bein ready, the fahm wagon moved away down the turnpike 
road past the locust tree lane gate. One by one the toll gate 
pack of hounds whined, sniffed the air, and seein the funeral 
startin away fell into line and went patterin along side the 
wagon in the dust of the road while some run on ahead as if 
to dare the way, so they went leavin Melissy, the chillens, 
their yallah dawg, and me, standin out in the pike road. So 
went away the body of one we had learned to love. 

“With the flowah bud in the red box went from ouah lives 
the sweet face whose sweet smiles had brightened the days of 
a slave fambly’s life. With the withered hand went the 
withered rose bud it had so often fondled, grasped at last, to 
be released only as the dust of the hand mingled with that of 
the unfolded rose. All the happiness that has come to that 
slave fambly of the toll gate house sence that funeral went 
away from them, leavin them standin in the big road to cry, 
has been tinged by the remembrance of that one great sor- 
row. 


CHAPTER XVII. 

OFF TO THE MEXICAN WAR. 

f have said the chile that come to the Maashall fambly 
^ with the crocus blooms aftah mothah died was now 
one of the fine young ladies of that Kaintucky blue grass 
coutry. Her home, the ole Maashall house, was a gathahin 
place for the young ladies of the country round and their 
friens, the gemmelmen of the Pisgah neighborhood, when 
Miss Clarrisy was at home from school, or travel. Among 
the many young gemmelmen most devoted to Miss Clarrisy 
were two fine young fellows who had been friens at college. 
I speak of young Jedge Caatah, of Crab Orchard, and of 
Mistah Spillman. Mr. Spillman was bawn and raised right 
here in this very house. I well remembah, it seemed to me 
to be a race between these two young men, which should 
win the hand of the fair Miss Clarrisy Maashall. These fav- 
orites and good friens of Mistus Clarrisy Maashall were equals 
in wealth and education, and as fate would so have it, were to 
be the first and second lieutenants of the soldiah company 
Miss Clarrisy’s brothah, Cappen John Clay Maashall, was to 
lead into the wah with Mexico. The soldiah company was 
all raised, the horses all ready, the young men were elected, 
Mastah Spillman to be first lieutenant, Jedge Caatah to be 
second lieutenant. The state was in a hurry for the troops to 
be off to Mexico to the wah. From the very first it had been 
determined by the Maashalls that as 1 had been given to John 
Clay as a Chrismas giff by his and my fathah and had been 
with him at school, at home, everywhere, now that he was 
goin to wah to fight for his flag and country, 1 must go with 
him. The fact that 1 had a fambly made no difference. 

213 


214 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


The ole Kunnel, Mistus Maashall and Mistus Clarrisy decided 
that where John Clay went his own Chrismas present must 
go too. That ended the mattah with Melissy and the chil- 
lens, and 1 was to go to wah. 

“All the talkin among the pore whites about niggah’s be- 
in too costly to shoot at, counted for nothin, so 1 must go. 
1 begged to be allowed to stay with Melissy and the chillens, 
but give it up and got ready to go with the horse company. 
It had long been undahstood as 1 have said, between the 
Maashalls and the Quigleys, that, if the Quigleys wanted to 
sell Melissy the ownahs of her husband should have the first 
chance to buy. Indeed it was allers the neighborhood un- 
dahstandin, where a mothah was owned in one white fambly 
and the fathah in anothah fambly, where the whites had con- 
sented to their livin togethah, the white ownah interested 
should have the first chance to buy, case there was to be a 
sale. So, as I had been raised with Mastah John Clay, and 
must go where he went, if to death, it was arranged with 
the consent of all, that the Maashalls, as Melissy was to stay 
at the toll gate for the two dollahs a month, were to put her 
on the Maashall lists. This assured Melissy would want for 
nothin while 1 was gone, and as the Maashalls were waitin to 
buy her and her chillens, she would. Gawd permittin, be at 
the toll house, or at home when the soldiahs come maachin 
home from Mexico. 

“So I was now happy cause my fambly would be cared 
for, and it was clarely my duty to go along and take the best 
of care of my own young frien and good mastah and bring 
him safe home. Melissy and me had talked it all ovah, the 
goin was clarely a duty, we agreed it couldn’t be helped, so, 
we would follow the leadins of a kind providence, she said, 
and do the best we could. Everybody was preparin for wah. 
The horse company was most ready to go away. 

“Togethah with the chillens and the chillen’s yallah dawg 
we had many times visited Genie’s fill grave at the 


OFF TO THE MEXICAN WAR 215 

foot of a big oak tree among the briahs gruwin in the ole 
Baptis berryin ground above the spahklin springs stillery on 
Stillery Ridge. We broke the blackberry canes away around 
the sunken grave, scrapin all the yallah dirt into the deep 
sink we could find, carryin some clods from the ground 
about the new grave in the Dobbins’ wife’s row. We 
smoothed the clay we placed on the grave the best we could, 
throwin the stones to the roots of the big oak tree standin 
side Genie’s restin place. We dragged the cut briahs back 
ovah the fresh made grave so the hound dawgs when huntin 
foxes through the patch, couldn’t scratch the earth away from 
above Genie’s sweet face. We thought of ouah lost one’s 
sweet kisses and her many pretty ways and how much she 
had loved us beginning with the first night we spent with her 
in the cabin house. 

“We talked about the silvah stah light in the ole stone 
chimbley there, and togethah renewed the hopes then spress- 
ed, that when she was an angel in heaven baby would remem - 
bah us, and togethah we were glad in ouah hahts that Mistus 
Quigley and the good sistahs of the sciety had sent us to the 
toll gate house where we had met the sweet soul, who was to 
call for us some time from her own sweet home among the 
silvah stahs. Then all of us, Melissy, the chillens, the yal- 
lah dawg and me, stood about the briah covahd grave at the 
base of the oak tree, and prayed in ouah souls, that we might 
all meet there aftah the great wah, 1 was to go to, was ovah. 
And if not, then with Genie in her home in heaven. So we 
stood about that briah strewn grave. Then as the black 
smoke come rollin up Stillery Hill past the one time white 
spired chuch, now smoked black, weall said good by Genie, 
good by, and went away down the smoky hill past the stil- 
lery, cross the bridge, among the stone cliffs, long by the 
woods paschah on top of the cliffs, to the toll gate home they 
carried the red box from. 

“The horse company had been sworn in, and had been 


216 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


drillin their horses. They had prepared for camp life in Mex- 
ico by eatin fine dinnahs with the ladies in all that part of the 
state, preparin for the long maaches and camp life on the 
sand plains of Mexico, where they were so soon to go. They 
were as jolly a lot of boys as evah campaigned through the 
best schools of the South and their state. While it wasn’t in- 
tended to be that way atall, there wasn’t a man in the com- 
pany but had his servant, some took along two black boys 
and furnished the horses he and they rode. Laws, they were 
high ridahs, splendid good fellows, and gemmelmen all. 

“Heaven help the achin hahts they were leavin behind 
them, for some were nevah to return. On the start from 
home a cloud of black boys followed each his young mastah. 
All these were sent home from Louisville, the command was 
divided into messes, each mess had a black man for a cook, 
but all the same the young gemmelmen took up camp duties 
as though bawn to them, and every young lawyer, doctah, 
plantah and preachah in the Second Kaintucky Cavalry rigi- 
ment, in less than a month, had learned to make coffee, fry 
bacon, sling a nice brown slapjack as high in air, ketchin it 
as it come down in the fryin pan without it evah tetchin the 
ground, as could any soldiah in Gineral Taylor’s corps from 
any state. 

“Talkin about a Kaintucky soldiah, if he’s native bawn, and 
has had a cullud fambly to hoe his cawn, and worm his tobac- 
co patch, he’s counted to be a gemmelman, but the cullud 
folks must do the wormin. And a man whose fathah owns 
a dozen famblies, and all the land they can tend, is only a 
gemmelman, the whole question turned on the cullud folks 
doin all the work. In that horse company there wasn’t a 
single soldiah but gemmelmen. We soon found it to be a 
fact, howevah, that there wasn’t anything for a man to do in 
the ahmy that wasn’t hahd work, and that the boys could be 
depended on to follow the flag day or night, even though it 
took hahd work to keep up. Every soldiah rode from home 


OFF TO THE MEXICAN WAR 


217 


the very best horse on the place, but the soldiah who lived to 
return from Mexico, had he depended on that horse to fetch 
him home, would have walked back. 

“Well, as I’m sayin to you, the horse company was ready 
to go. When we got back to the toll gate from Genie’s 
sunken grave at the base of that big oak tree among the 
briahs, we found one of the Maashall culld men waitin to tell 
me the company was to semble on the road between the 
Maashall and Spillman mansion houses durin the night, and 
that Lieutenant Spillman would lead the advance on Mexico 
at daylight, startin from the Walnut Tree Lane. Cappen 
John Clay Maashall, with me, was to mount and ride aftah 
the column down through the toll gate, and would overtake 
the company commanded by Lieutenant Spillman or Caatah 
some time durin the foorenoon. We were to make long 
maaches, as the Second Kaintucky rigiment was waitin to 
form in camp at Louisville, so there was no time to be lost. 

“Many a time sence we had lived at the toll gate, Melissy 
and me, leavin the chillens in the care of the yallah dawg, 
had gone at night through Locust Tree Lane past the orchard 
to Maple Tree Spring for a deep drink of its cold watah. 

“That last night I was to be with my fambly for so many 
long years, though we thought the seperatin was to be only 
for months, we set long at the spring where Aunt Polley had 
met the slave buyers. 

“We talked of that awful trial. Seemed remembrance of 
that scene was alters with us when awake, and often we 
dreamed it all ovah again, and again. This night we lived it 
all ovah again as though an actual recurin scene, and ouah 
hahts were heavy as lead. What a blessing we could not 
know of the almost unsurmountable difficulties the future 
had in store for u>, or what was to be ouah fate aftah we 
separated for the Mexican wah. 

“All that night while at the spring, or as we set in the fill 
room we watched, hopin again to see the stah of hope, and 


218 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


though it failed to shine for us, we remembahd we once saw 
it, and too the sweet life of the angel that come to us the 
very night it shone for us. Then there was the sweet thought 
that we had done what we could for one of Christ’s lill ones, 
and we took courage and hoped the Maashalls would speak of 
the fambly at the toll gate in their lettahs, and certainly Cap- 
den Maashall would of me in his, so we would hear from 
each othah often, but still the fear the Quigleys might not 
keep their promise to sell to the Maashalls, if they sold, was 
evah with us, crushin ouah hahts. 

“So that last night with the fambly wore away. Long be- 
fore the comin day lit up the east Melissy was cookin 
breakfas, talkin, cryin, fryin, turnin the ham ovah to brown, 
butterin the toast, tastin the coffee, turnin aigs, and settin on 
a cake of Maashall honey most as white as the pretty fringed 
napkin ole Mistus Maashall had worked her sweet name into 
and sent by Miss Clarrisy’s own hands to Melissy to set the 
honey dish on. 

“Of cose my eyes were folerin every motion of Melissy’s 
hands as my ears lissened to the deep breathins of the two 
chillens and their yallah dawg all sleepin togethah and the 
sound of the cavalry horses gatherin out in the road. 

“As Melissy set the honey on the white napkin she said: 
‘The Maashall wagon was here only yistidy; the drivah said 
as soon as he could git some jugs he would fetch us more 
maple syrup; he was only givin out a tase now for the bat- 
tah cakes, so here’s the lasses. My, its good! You’ll take 
your choice, honey from the peach and apple trees, or sugah 
lasses from the maples. 1 do wondah if the soldiahs have 
maple lasses in the ahmy.’ 

“‘Then see this slice of ham from the meat the wago n left 
us. Laws, its good! You eat a good breakfas husband, and 
as you go away remembah there’s plenty for us where all this 
come from.’ But 1 noticed as Melissy talked, the tears were 
drippin from her cheeks onto the white cloth she had spread 


OFF TO THE MEXICAN WAR 219 

ouah breakfas on. Breakfas was ready. As we set, Melis 
sy's sweet prayer for her lill ones and her husband, the one 
she had prayed so long, filled the lill room. She asked that 
Genie's voice might soon ring the skies along, callin us to 
unite as one fambly, to be seperated no more on earth. 
Then the coflPee was poured in the green sprig china cup, 
without milk because the toll gate cow was dry and 1 had for- 
gotten to bring milk from home. She put a nice browned 
battah cake and some good fat ham on my white plate with 
a big nick broken in its rim by Genie, set the honey, buttah 
and maple syrup close by. My, what a breakfas that was! 

‘‘Gemmelmen, neither of us could eat a bite, not a bite, 
cause she cried all the time. It was many years aftah that 
breakfas was ready, the coffee poured, and the browned grid- 
dle cake steamed hot there side the buttah and honey, before 
Melissy and me eat a mouthful togethah, as youall will see as 
this story is told. On my plate was a fine piece of nice fat 
ham, a great brown battah cake all buttahd so nice, and two 
fried eggs, but 1 couldn't eat. 1 was about to bury my face 
in Melissy's sweet white table cloth when the chillen's yallah 
dawg stood up with his fore paws on my ahm lookin me in 
the face, smackin his lips as he sniffed the nice things, and 
the next instant he was eatin his breakfas, once mine, now 
his, of ham, eggs, battah cake, honey and maple lasses from 
my plate set down for him on the puncheon floah. 1 heard 
the notes of a bugle hohn callin, fall in, fall in. It was day- 
light now in the ole stone chimbly. I buttahd anothah brown 
cake for the yallah dawg and give him anothah slice of ham, 
the bugle called and called and I rose to go. 

“I Kissed the sleepin chillens, hugged the yallah dawg, giv- 
in him the last slice of ham in the skillet, bowed my head on 
my wife's breast, not darin to look in her face or speak to 
her, and hurried out of the stoopy doah across the sinkin 
floah porch. I hurried through the pack of hounds waitin for 
their breakfas, and as I went out on the pike road 1 heard the 


220 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


bugle hohn sound the command to maach. 1 went away not 
darin to look back, but the toll gate woman said as 1 passed: 
‘Good by, black boy, for Genie’s sake, good by.’ No one 
kin evah know how much happiness that give me. 

“1 had gone but a lill way when 1 heard the horses comin 
at a brisk trot down the pike. The company was movin. I 
hahdly had time to clamber to the top of a Maashall stone 
fence by the roadside, when, led by Lieutenant Spillman, the 
comany swept by. 1 watched the rear go through the toll 
gate. The company had started for the wah in Mexico. 

“1 soon got to the Walnut Tree Lane, and leavin the road 
passed up to the white gate where 1 had last seen and heard 
my dear mothah’s voice . 

“The horses Kunnel Maashall was to give Cappen John 
Clay Maashall were standin in the lane all saddled and bri- 
dled and ready to go. We youngsters, a crowd of black boys 
standin about the horses, had been raised on the same fiels 
with them. The boys knode the horses and the horses knode 
the boys. The horses would jump the full length of their 
bodies and legs the instant a pair of black legs went cross the 
saddle, less they were held. The boys had trained the horses 
from suckin colts. Laws, they could run! Both sides were 
watchin for the black leg to cross the saddle; the horses were 
pawin the ground and the black boys were hangin on to them. 
Both sides were mighty sure of a race, and nothin suited 
horse or boy better. 

“Cappen Maashall was to ride young Selim, a dark bay 
fouah year ole with black mane and tail, and white fore feet 
and legs to his knees, while his hind feet were as black as his 
tail. He was the finest blooded horse on the place. I was to 
try and hang onto Selim’s own brothah who was a dark gray 
with light mane, tail and feet. The boys on the place called 
this three year ole geldin Gray, simply. Gray. Ole Kunnel 
Maashall nevah thought much of that gray colt, not nough 
to name him, and let him run among the grazin mares and 


OFF TO THE MEXICAN WAR 


221 


rough it till he was a full two year ole and the calves bit his 
mane and tail off so that he wasn’t so very pretty at the time 
I was to ride him away, or rathah, try to ride him, for he 
neyah had been rode ceptin as the boys at night stole him out 
of a paschah lot and run him agin somebody’s colt on a back 
mud road. If Kunnel only had knode it Gray was the fast- 
est horse for miles and miles around not trained and of his 
age, but the boys knode it for sure. That is we boys thought 
he was for he had neyah been beat on one of ouah night races, 
and we run lots of them. 

“Gray bein lowed to run loose so long in the back pasch- 
ahs was one reason why the Quigley boys were so pore 
themselyes, for, like their mastah, long’s they had anything 
they would back his colts, and the gray colt ruined the purse 
every time. Well, when 1 got to the Maashall house gate 
where mothah once bid me good by, Selim and Gray were 
pawin the earth for they about knode they were to run. As 
for Gray, he was watchin to see some black leg go ovah his 
back, when he would jump his length, legs and all, and the 
boys were holdin onto him mighty careful like for they knode 
he would be off at the yery first chance. Eyerybody was 
biddin me good by and wishin they could go along, and tellin 
me to stay on the colt’s back, and be sure to fetch him home 
from the wah, and to be careful not to run ahead of Selim 
long as Cappen Maashall was on him, and then the boys 
scattahd down the lane to cry good by, and see the race as 
the horses went by. 

“All the white people in the country round were interested 
in the horse company, and most of the famblies had sons in 
it, so that nearly all the whites, young and ole, and all the 
black folks who could git to Kunnell Maashall’s were there to 
see the young men of the company go away. The black 
men and boys were crowdin the roadways, sittin among the 
branches of the walnut trees, and lined up on the stone fences. 
There were many young ladies there in carriages, on horse- 


222 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


back and with their company afoot. The ladies had come 
early to bid their brothahs and friens a long good by. They 
had done so before 1 got to the lane. The company gone, they 
waited to see Cappen John Clay Maashall ride, bowin to 
them as he went away. But they were to be mistakened, 
there was to be no bowin, the horses wasn’t goin to have it 
that way atall. When 1 got to the Maashall place the horses 
were saddled and bridled and ready to go. Two black men 
were holdin on to Selim. 1 took my place side of the gray 
colt, that, though a full brothah to Selim, as he was, had 
nevah been lowed to sociate with him in the stalls or any 
where, for while one was sponged and rubbed and trained 
at the horse barn, the othah, as he was thought to be the 
makin only of a good roadster had been runnin with the ole 
mares, their colts, and the ole muly cows in the grass and the 
stubble fiels, but for all that. Gray in his bare foot runsmoon- 
shiny nights had learned he could go about as fast as he 
wanted to go to win the bettins, and knowin that, it took two 
or three of the cullud boys to hold him down to the grass 
aftah he once felt the saddle strap or a bare foot goin about 
his blue grass filled belly. Of cose livin on grass and heaps of 
cold spring watah, and nevah sweated he was mightily out of 
fohm, but his muscles, the boys knode, were as hard as iron. 
It was a great pity that range colt was sent off to wah in 
Mexico. 1 stood by the colt’s side, his bridle rein in my hand, 
the othah hand restin on his shouldah ready, if quick enough, 
to jump to a mount as the cullud boys let go of the colt’s 
bridle bits, knowin all the time that the black boys standin all 
about had their eyes on me, and didn’t for a minute believe 1 
could mount into Gray’s saddle on the fly, they didn’t, be- 
cause he was so quick. The horses were stamping their feet 
strikin at the boys that held them fast, champin their bits, and 
tryin to git loose for to go, as the Kunnul, ole Mistus, young 
Mistus Clarrisy and Cappen John Maashall, come slowly down 
the wide stone walk by the summah house, where 1 first met 


OFF TO THE MEXICAN WAR 223 

the white boy in the snow and where Baby Clarrisy was 
found in the frost among the crocus blooms. The mothah 
and daughtah had been cryin, while the Kunnel looked pale 
and troubled, his only son was goin away to wah. Theyall 
had said their farewells to the Cappen, who as yet wasn’t in 
uniform, he had only to bow to his ole mothah and fathah 
and ride away, and they had arranged it all so there would be 
no cryin and no scene at the final partin at the gate. 

“As the Cappen was bowin, hat in hand, to his fathah and 
mothah, and was goin to salute all present, Mistus Clarrisy 
Maashall see me standin by Gray’s shouldah, and forgittin the 
present, seemin to remembah only the past, when a black boy 
held her up on the soff cahpets teachin her lill feet to walk, 
come runnin among the black boys who could hahdly scam- 
per out of her way quick enough and stoopin undah Gray’s 
high head, run her white ahms about my black neck and 
kissed her frien of baby days, as she said, ‘dear Siah, are you 
right shore you kin ride that wild colt.^ Goodby Siah, be good 
to brothah while you’re gone, good by, good by.’ Gawd 
bless that sweet chile’s pure soul, now that she is dead and 
gone to heaven with all the rest of the Maashall fambly. 
Now youall wait till 1 wipe my eyes. By the time Mistus 
Clarrisy let go her hold on my neck it seemed that everybody 
and the horses were gittin in a hurry. There was dear 
ole Mistus and Kunnel Maashall in tears, for every- 
body begin to cry as Mistus Clarrisy kissed her ole- 
time playmate good by, as she said, ‘be pahticulah about 
youah mastah, Josiah, dont let anything happen to him while 
you’re gone, and dont forgit to bring the horses home lookin 
mose as good as they do now, for fathah is proud of Selim. 
Take care of youahself, we will care for Melissy and the chil- 
lens, dont fear.’ 

“And the first thing I knode aftah she was through speakin, 
somebody said, ‘there he goes, dare the road!’ Then it 
seemed a big hand picked me up from the ground and tossed 


224 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


me in the air. 1 hadn’t noticed three of the farm boys were 
close for that purpose, same as they done nights, when the 
colt was to start, while anothah held fast to the bits. Up in 
the air 1 went. At that instant Gray lit on the ground aftah 
jumpin his full length, soon as the boy let go his bits. As 
his feet tetched the ground, comin down myself, 1 lit in the 
saddle, as the colt knode 1 would. Togethah we had jumped 
Gray’s full length, legs and all, and was goin down the lane 
like a streak. My hands had caught the reins close to the 
bits and me stretched out on the colt’s neck and only tetchin 
my knees to the saddle, but still stayin with the blue grass 
colt goin behind the leadin horse, and he flyin like the wind. 
So many people were crowded in the lane there was only a 
narrow way for the horses to run in between their lines. As 
the horses run the yellin white folks, and blacks hollerin like 
mad all throwin their hats and bonnets in the air, fell back 
jess so as to let the flyers go through single file, Selim leadin, 
his ridah not evah tryin to hold him in. 

“The cullud boys from the Maashall fiels seein this, and 
jess spilin to see if Gray could beat the fine stable horse, Selim, 
for they nevah dast steal Selim out of his stall moonshiny 
nights to give the paschah colt a chance to do it, as Mas- 
tah John Clay let Selim go, and the gray colt showed that 
suited him, they fairly yelled with delight. Some threw their 
hats at me and Gray from their perches in the walnut trees, 
othahs strung along on top the vine-clustered stone fences, 
stood on their wooly heads, their feet anywhere out in the 
air as they yelled. Hearin his ole-time friens’ voices 
and knowin every one of them pussonally, and spectin 
a good feed as the boys took him back home aftah winnin 
the race, for he allers got the cawn if the boys had to steal it, 
goodness, how that gray colt, raised on the grass among 
the mares and fillies, showin kick marks from their heels, and 
where the lill bull calf gnawed his tail, did go. He skimmed 
the ground from high place to high place, not evah tetchin 


OFF TO THE MEXICAN WAR 


225 


the low places between them, certainly he did. Down Wal- 
nut Tree Lane we flew, down the leafy ole lane from the 
Maashall house to the turnpike gate now wide open for them 
to pass out, the horses run, undah the walnut trees where as 
boys Mastah John Clay and me hahvested ouah wintah sup- 
ply of walnuts, pilin them for the frost to hull, where the 
nuts would stay, and stay, as the snow fell, the wintah long, 
our own hoarded wealth, while we eat apples in the library, 
nevah thinkin of the nuts, but woe be to the pore black boy 
on the place who dared break into ouah nut piles or tetched a 
single walnut in the lane. Do wn past where the nut piles 
used to be rottin down swiftly we flew. 

“Gray stretched out for the puss he spected to win, me 
holdin onto him best 1 could, but in spite of all 1 could do. Gray 
was now runnin with his nose at Selim’s flank, and some 
black man yelled: ‘See that race horse run, see Gray run!’ 
Then there come the reply: ‘Why, of cose he’s runnin, git out 
of his way, laws look at that calf bit colt run!’ 

“Down the ole Walnut Tree Lane, out on the pike road 
went the horses, and with some mighty jumps Gray lit ahead 
of his fine raised brothah. My! but 1 was sorry, but how 
could 1 help it.^ Then the cullud boys, seein Gray ahead, 
yelled with delight. Then Gray fell back, and Selim skipped 
ahead, but the boys still yelled, when Cappen cried out to me 
as he looked ovah his right shouldah, for he was 
enjoyin every jump the horses made hisself, win or 
loose, ‘come on boy, keep up sah, keep up,’ he said, which 
Gray hearin, he fairly left the ground and went — so fast 
seemed like Selim was standin still on the pike all by hisself 
and the race was won. As we went through the toll gate, 
everybody and everything was standin in a row. The red- 
headed white woman was there, the toll man sittin on the 
wood pile was wavin his hat, Melissy stood at the fence, the 
chillens and their yallah dawg by her side. The pore ole 
cow picketed on the place where there used to be some grass. 


226 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


had for once stopped gnawin among the limestones and 
watched us rush by. The whole pack of toll gate hounds 
were crazy for a run, and there was Aunt Polley at the Jack- 
son lane wavin her sunbonnet to me as we passed. So the 
horses run, nor stopped, but with Gray hopelessly ahead. 

“As we sped on 1 looked back. There stood Melissy and 
the chillens and their companion, the yallah dawg, out in the 
middle of the road, wavin me good by. It was the last 
glimpse 1 had of Melissy and the chillens for seventeen years. 

“Ouah horses drew up at the bridge, togethah we crossed, 
and walkin side by side we passed the Spahklin Springs Still 
and up the hill to the Baptis berryin ground. As we rose the 
hilt we met Lieutenant Spillman speedin back. Lieutenant 
had started the company well on its road to Louisville and 
was returnin, as 1 heard him say, for a good start hisself. 

“While 1 was lookin at the till grave by the big oak tree 1 
heard the Lieutenant say Lieutenant Caatah was not with the 
company but would be up with the command before breakin 
camp the first mawnin out. As for hisself he was scused to 
go back to say goodby to a frien, but would return in time to 
command the company on the road on the morrow. With 
that undahstandin Lieutenant Spillman rode on down Stillery 
Hill. I had the first glimpse of the beginin of a hatred be- 
tween the young officahs. Lieutenants Spillman and Caatah, 
that in time was to utterly ruin both of their young lives, 
and for evah cloud the sweet white soul they both loved. 
Miss Clarissy Maashall. Lieutenant Caatah it afterwards ap- 
peared, had waited until that startin day of the company for 
Mexico to declare his love for Miss Clarissy, and to pray her 
for her sweet hand in marriage when the wah should be ovah. 
While she, innocent soul, was compelled to inform him as 
they set in the ole summah house by the wide stone walk 
that she nevah encouraged his advances though happy in his 
friendship always, and that her haht was filled with all the 
love it could know on earth already for anothah, and her lily 


OFF TO THE MEXICAN WAR 


227 


white hand was promised. 

“Unfortunately for the young soldiahs the two men were 
to meet at the Walnut Tree Lane that day of the goin away. 
Lieutenant Caatah, his haht crushed by the refusin of 
his love was rldin out, as Lieutenant Spillman, full of hope of 
happiness to come, rode in. Lieutenant Spillman raised his 
hat and bowed as they passed. Lieutenant Caatah paid no 
tention whatevah to his superior ofRciah’s salute, and the 
wound then made was nevah healed, but cost the lives of both 
men, and in the end, that of the woman they both loved, as 
well. 

“Gemmelmen, the closin of my story of the ole watah 
mill, and that of Melissy and the chillens, will set before you 
the tragedy that day begun, its end to be the death of all the 
young people, actors in its scenes. 

“Leavin Genie’s grave among the briahs there on Stillery 
Hill, we rode on, soon passin the long line of country teams 
as they went loaded with the baggage stores and servants of 
the command. We finally ovahtook the company, dismount- 
ed, the horses were tied to the fences and trees by the road- 
side, the men were enjoyin theirselves among a great crowd 
of women and their friens, at a cross roads among the green 
fiels, where the people of the neighborhood for miles around 
had gathahd to feast their sons, brothahs and friens, and to 
say farewell, perhaps forevah. Here, side one of Kaintucky’s 
famous springs of watah, in a shady wood, had been 
prepared feed for the horses, and cullud boys to rub 
and smooth all travel stains away as a last service for the 
colts the blacks had been raised with, then was served the 
dinnah, then come the talkin, and everybody sung while the 
soldiah boys and the girls hopped ovah the bluegrass in the 
shade to the music of an ole cullud man’s fiddle. When all 
was merriment and joy, there come sorrow, the bugle hohn 
sounded, fall in, fall in. Hasty farewells were spoken, there 
was a kiss for mose every soldiah boy and somebody to de- 


228 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


livah it, a hand shake, a good by for every fellow as he swung 
into his saddle. The company stood in line, a crowd of peo- 
ple pressed all about. At the sound of the bugle it broke into 
fours as they wheeled, and followin the Cappenthey all went 
trottin away down the ole turnpike road. This time 1 thought 
them off to wah. 

“The company had hahdly settled down to a brisk trot on 
the stony road, thinkin itself gone away shore nough, when 
the Country wimin and their girls with their gemmelmen all 
finely mounted, rode aftah them. Here was to be the first 
sprise and the first capchah of the wah. The ladies rode at 
breakneck speed through a grass fiel, flanked the company , 
formed in the road ahead of it from stone fence to stone fence 
cross the way, theyall mixed up with the laffin soldiah boys. 
Cappen Maashall couldn’t tell tothah from which, surrendahd 
the command to the enemy, the men were disahmd, they lost 
their horses. The wimin took them into a prison camp in a 
shady grove, the ole black man was right there with his fiddle, 
and the girls and boys danced the aftahnoon and night away. 
By daylight the ladies and gemmelmen had left us, and here 
was turned back all the wagons ceptin what was needed to 
carry company plundah to camp at Louisville. With the 
wagons, too, returned to their homes, all the servants but one 
for headquarters, a few for cooks and some for hostlers, but 
most of these went home from Louisyille. So far, the com- 
pany had had a delightful time and we wondered if what we 
had seen was indeed the life of a soldiah. 

“It was a sorry crowd of cullud boys that turned back 
home from camp that mawnin, for all wanted to go. We 
were ready to maach finally and Cappen Maashall was about 
to mount as 1 held Selim, when Lieutenant Spillman rode up, 
tetched his hat and handed Cappen a pretty white papah 
smellin for all the world like Miss Clarrisy’s briah roses bloom- 
in on the back porch, and with it a white rose from her own 


OFF TO THE MEXICAN WAR 229 

hand with a kiss on it. He said it was from Mothah Maashall. 
The Lieutenant reported passin Lieutenant Caatah’s horse tied 
fast to a fence by a house on the road durin the night. Soon 
as Lieutenant Spillman had reported, he fell back to the mess 
wagon for a lunch, and the company maached away. 

“Lieutenant Caatah rode into camp with his company at 
Louisville, all right, where we become part of the Second 
Kaintucky Cavalry, Kunnel Munday, commandin. Aftah 
drillin for two long weeks and bein ahmed and equipped, we 
were loaded on steamboats and passed on down the rivahs to 
New Orleans. There with ouah horses we were huddled into 
ships, and aftah a rough passage, aossed the Gufl of Mexico 
and were landed at Brazos, Santiago, on the Texas coast, 
where Gineral Taylor’s ahmy was camped on the grassy 
plain, organizin and drillin the raw volunteers as they come 
to him. 


CHAPTER XVHI. 

ON THE PLAINS OF TEXAS. 


t fi A S soon as we were brigaded and the ahtillery and 
wagon trains with ammunition and stores were 
ready, we with one gun of Ringold’s battery took the advance. 
We were to follow the rear of the Mexian ahmy cross the 
green grass plains on the invasion of Ole Mexico. We were 
many days skirmishin with the Mexican rear gahd and often 
drawn up in line of battle spectin the Mexican lancahs in 
front of us with flags flyin, hohns soundin, a very forest of 
spears flashin in the hot sun, would jess ride dare through 
ouah thin lines. They often rode round us, gittin away 
from the skippin round shot ouah ahtillery gun presented 
them with. There were clouds of Mexican spears jess out of 
range of ouah gun, it seemed as their gun went flyin across 
ouah front they had as many wild horses as they cared to 
hook up. It all looked to a Kaintucky cullud man mighty 
dangersome, deed it did. 

“When Gray was nippin the grass side Selim, as Cappen 
watched the Mexicans through his glass way out on the plain 
in advance of ouah line, the horses all the time keepin one 
eye on the greasers, as some officah would say, ‘looks as 
though they were goin to ride dare ovah us this time.’ It 
seemed to me then, it was a powahful resky place for cullud 
property to be in, and a bad place for good horses the men 
had beed structed to bring back home whatevah they done. 
We soon see we had only a handful of men compared with 
the enemy, and wondahd what Gineral Taylor was spectin to 
do with them, and how he would git away from the great 
Mexican ahmy, once they come to us for a battle to a finish^ 
230 


ON THE PLAINS OF TEXAS 231 

but they didn’t, and we kept right ahead skirmishin with their 
rear gahd, and though the Mexicans were as fouah to one of 
us, they retreated as fast as we advanced, which was the very 
thing I was hopin we would do, stid of them. But every day 
when we broke amp, stid of goin to the rear, as I wanted to 
do, the company and the gun would swing out on the advance, 
the Mexican artillery gun and the lancahs opposin us, the bu- 
gles playin, their ahtillery gun sendin their black balls jukin 
round in the tall grass along ouah front. Then we would 
halt Ringold’s gun and sometimes the whole battery would 
come up, unlimbah, and bout the time the gunners got the 
range and a few of their balls went searchin round among the 
Mexian horses, and the Kaintucky rigiment was ready for a 
dash cross the plain to take the Ole Mexico ahtillery gun in, 
away theyall would go, like a herd of antelope through the 
grass, or a flock of porpoise at sea. They’d all be gone by the 
time ouah men got there when anothah cloud of Mexian 
horses would seem to grow up where nothin but wavin grass 
had been seen before, they’d settle down to a keen run, are- 
ful to keep away from ouah flyin ahtillery and the Second 
Kaintucky horse. When we were bledged to stop for the 
balance of the ahmy to come up, the Mexicans called that an- 
othah victory for their side and would shell us again. It was 
aftah a day of hahd work followin Cappen Maashall on the 
skirmish line anywhere, everywhere out on the plain, that 
ouah company of horse was relieved. The horses were pick- 
eted for a feed and the men huddled in the grass for a rest. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

GRAY WINS— JOSIAH’S LIFE THE STAKE. 

6 i '‘T'HE sun was floatin low tords the shores of an ocean 
^ of grass. Away off tords that shore a strip of 
woods attracted my attention. We had been goin to the 
wood lands as a company to find watah. 1 tried to make up 
a watah squad to ride for watah that evenin, so I asked Cap- 
pen’s permission to ride to the wood land and fetch him a 
canteen of watah. I gathahd a lot of empty canteens from 
the men, and tyin the strings togethah threw them in pairs 
cross Gray’s neck and stradlin the colt’s back with no saddle 
to bothah the colt was away before Cappen could change his 
mind, about me goin so far alone, and stop me. 

“It was a long path ahead of the gray colt and his ridah. 
It was only an antelope path and all the way through 
grass sometimes so tall we were hidden from sight, but 
most times a Mexican watchin would have seen the horse’s 
back and his ridah. It was like wadin a horse in watah mose 
deep nough to take him off his feet. We headed for what I 
had thought a marsh, knowin picchahs seen faraway on a 
grass plain were mighty deceivin, but 1 wasn’t mistakened as 
to the marshy ground that time, it was there all right, though 
1 had been wrong as to distance, for the sun was gittin down 
tords the grass line behind us when we gotjthere. The marsh 
stretched away far as I could see on my right front. While 
directly on ouah front as we stood lookin at its wavy swells 
was the higher ground of a grassed plain fringed by the trees 
I had seen from camp. The timbah run well to the left of 
my position. The faraway point of it seemed to plow its 
way, a narrow strip of trees into a grassy ocean. 

232 


GRAY WINS— JOSIAH’S LIFE THE STAKE 233 

“Sittin on Gray, I see before us a V shaped plain, the pint 
of the V far away'from where we stood was where the wood 
land and the tall grass of the marsh land parted company, and 
each for itself stretched away on divergin angles to penetrate 
the grassy plain. If judgin of distance anywhere but on a 
Texas plain, where an antelope could be seen, as the boys 
said, ‘half way cross the continent,’ 1 would say, the angles of 
wood and marsh borderin the V were each five miles long, 
while a line connectin their ends and passin through our po- 
sition as we stood would be about the same distance to ride. 
So Gray wheeled to the left and started for the timbah, 
spectin there to find watah, but 1 was soon satisfied the dis 
tance had been undahestimated, for the farther he went the far- 
ther the wood seemed away. 

“As I rode past a sentry squad on leavin ouah lines, one of 
the boys yelled aftah me, ‘remembah uncle, youaint in Kain- 
tucky now, look out for Mexicans they’ll take you in.’ Well, 
1 thought, they’ll ketch us first, wont they Gray? But as 
Gray single footed along through the grass sometimes breast 
high, then up to his ears, nippin as he went, 1 was on the 
lookout for greasers all the time and ready for a back trail to 
camp should 1 see any jukin round. 1 hadn’t gone very far 
tords the timbah pint to my left out yondah on the plain, 
when 1 noticed the trees 1 was ridin to were on higher ground 
than 1 was on, so doubtin if watah could be found there, 1 
changed my course, wheelin to the right shahply goin down 
the hill and so finally ridin to the place where the marsh line 
and the trees separated. 

“1 was now at the shahp pint of the V. As you will soon 
see 1 had ridden into a sack, the marsh line stretchin away 
formin one side of the sack, the line of timbah 1 had ridden 
down the othah side, when away out on the plain at the base 
of the V lookin tords its pint, while runninmy sight along the 
timbah 1 had seen what 1 then thought a herd of antelope 
goin through the tall grass, but antelope were plenty in that 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


254 

country. 1 had seen a lot of them off to my right in the 
marsh as 1 left it to cross to the trees. They stood watchin 
me as 1 went. We often started herds of antelope from out 
the grass on ouah scouts, sometimes a drove of them would 
follow the command for hours watchin every motion we 
made, to be off when the shootin begun. There were plenty 
of wild horses, cattle and antelope on the Texas plains. The 
boys often killed them. 

“1 had gone away on my search for watah thinkin nothin 
of them. On the sight of antelope, cattle, or wild horsesrun- 
nin cross the plains the thing to do would be to look for the 
cause of the stampede. It might be caused by a pack of 
wolves aftah their dinnah. It was often found to be caused 
by Mexican horsemen, but we learned that when a plains an- 
imal run a great distance, he was runnin from an enemy, ev- 
ery time, and his enemy was ouahs, the Mexicans. That was 
what I didn’t know at the time. If I had, I would have known 
a Mexican would ride all day with a pack train or a wagon 
train, and as soon as the train was camped, would warm up 
a cupful of panolas at his lill fire, drink it, light his cigarette, 
load his gun for antelope, and ride his tiahd coviah away af- 
tah meat for his breakfas next day. But 1 didn’t know all 
that. So on had gone Gray, hisself on the lookout for every- 
thing that was to be seen far or near while huntin for the 
watah, as 1 soon found out to his credit, of cose speettn to 
take his own time goin back to amp soon as the boys’ an- 
teens were filled, we arrived at the timbah by the marsh, as 
described and into its shades went Gray and soon as 
found into a grassy pool of watah went the colt’s nose, as 
though he was thinkin about Maple Tree Springs where the 
boys had often ridden him at night when lookin for a race. 

“There was watah for a rigiment of Kaintucky horses there 
in that woods. And too, aftah fillin a anteen and drinkin 
my fill as Gray had done, and from the same watah hole, 1 
noticed there were plenty of antelope tracks, and horse tracks. 


GRAY WINS— JOSIAH’S LIFE THE STAKE 235 

and was startled to see the print of men’s feet at the pool’s 
edge. 1 had found where the flyers of the plains, the wild 
horses, the cattle, and the antelope watahd, but how about the 
shoe tracks? 

“1 at once knew Mexicans had been there before me. They 
had been there sence the antelope and attle tracks were made 
about the watah, for the shoe tracks tramped ovah the ani- 
mal tracks. 1 had seen antelope. They had been there to 
watah, was it the drove 1 see whose foot prints had been 
tramped ovah? Noticin one shoe print close 1 see the clear 
watah slowly oozin into it, showin the track was fresh made, 
and that the foot that made it wasn’t long gone, but even all 
that failed to fully alarm me. 1 stood dy Gray’s side while 
he tasted the watah, time and again. So Gray had finally 
drunk his fill. Then 1 filled the anteen from his grassy 
drinkin cup. His calf gnawed mane was leisurely straddled 
with filled canteens, tied in twos. Doin so 1 wondered why 
Kunnel Maashall had let him run so long with the calves, for 
his mane still showed how they had petted him. 

“Kunnel had said from the first time he see the colt weav- 
in round on its long legs near its mothah in the breedin yard , 
‘O, that colt’s cut too high; there’s a whole year of daylight 
undah him. He’ll nevah mount to nothin.’ Well, I was 
thinkin about all that, and that the boys on the Maashall 
plantation could win all the money anybody in the neighbor- 
hood could find to bet agin that same tangle legged gray colt. 
1 was about to swing up on his bare back, and ride away 
from the wood and watah, when lookin at the cool watah we 
were to leave in the grassy drinkin cup at the foot of the 
trees, it all lookin so invitin aftah ridin for days aftah the re- 
treatin Mexicans on the hot plains tryin to take that ahtillery 
gun into camp, sometimes dyin for a drink of watah, 1 kneel- 
ed down on the grass and drunk my farwell, all the time see - 
n in memory the ole drinkin gode of Maple Tree Spring 
tuggin at its string as it tried to float away on the tide oHime 


236 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

stone watah jess as plain as 1 now see youall. I looked in 
the watah thinkin 1 see the faces of Melissy, of auntie, of the 
men from Ahkinsaw, thinkin what 1 would do to the niggah 
buyers if 1 only dast, and O, how I’d fix them if I could meet 
them in Texas. And was beginnin to wondah how Sqiah 
Quigley would get the money to pay his next race loosins, 
wishin he owned Gray, and 1 would be willin to walk back 
home, right from that watah pool, Mexicans or no Mexicans, 
as Gray would win him out and Melissy be safe, when Gray 
made a shy to one side and whistled out of his nose as 1 had 
heard him do many times when somebody was comin in the 
woods paschah at home, with a bridle in his hand. 

“There Gray stood, his head high up among the leaves. 
He moved anothah step to one side trimblin like a silvah 
poplah leaf in the air, as one of the toll gate keepahs hound 
dawgs would do in Kaintucky trailin on a stone cliff if a fox 
had passed that way within a day of his comin. 1 was now 
myself. No more thoughts of home in Kaintucky and its 
dear ones, its coolin shades, its floatin gode at Maple Springs 
tied to a maple root, floated for me on the ripplin watahs by 
the tree roots in Texas. Gray and me were wide awake 
now. Grippin Gray's chawed mane with my left hand, in- 
stanter I was on his bare back behind the canteens, and was 
hahdly there when he had turned shahp to the right and was 
slippin round among the trees, on the way out of the woods. 
There was a shahp report behind us, a bullet zipped mong 
the leaves so close to us 1 thought we had been hit, then 
there come a yell, a loud carambo, anothah shot. We were 
now fairly out of the woods goin away among the cactus 
bushes and the chaparel growin at the limits of the plain. 
Gray was still dodgin the balls as he made for the open. He 
had jess stretched hisself as he done when leavin Walnut Tree 
Lane, and was beginnin the prettiest run a Kaintucky horse 
evah made outside his own blue grass country, goin fastah 
than any antelope or Mexican coviah evah did run anywhere 


GRAY WINS— JOSIAH’S LIFE THE STAKE 237 

on earth, when it seemed to me a whole rigiment of the Mex- 
ican ahmy fired their ole Spanish muskets, bang! bang! bang! 
at us. Laws how the balls, like a swahm of Kaintucky bees, 
buzzed about ouah ears. 

“By that time Gray was skippin through the grass ahead 
of the bullets, the watah canteens were flyin about my head 
as it lay on his neck. String aftah string of canteens fell to 
the ground as we went! Try in to dodge out of the way as 
the shots come singin by and lookin back ovah my shoudah 
I see Mexican horsemen rushin from the wood where we 
come out. Less the Gray colt was fastah than the bullets 
they were sendin aftah me it now was clear it was the last 
race Gray and me would run. Laws, but the shots goin by 
did scrape us close! Why, that colt had bullet scrapes and 
scratches on his neck and rump as long as he lived, and one 
Mexican shot cut a saw tooth out of his right ear! Lookin 
back once more, 1 see the Mexicans while they kept up their 
firin had stopped and all were watchin us git away. Still 
Gray was goin through the breast-high grass, runnin like a 
Jack rabbit. Laws, how he did run, but the yellin niggah 
boys were absent. We were goin in a bee line side the 
marsh out on the plain, the canteens all left in the grass be- 
hind us. Seein we were now out of range of the ole Spanish 
cahbines and muskets the greasers had been emptyin at us as 
we got away, and as the Mexicans had stopped, 1 reined Gray 
into a sweepin trot, still watchin the horsemen behind us, and 
noticin they had antelope quahtahs thrown cross behind their 
saddles. The horses seemed too heavy to run aftah us. 1 re- 
membah wonderin they hadn’t unloaded a horse or two and 
sent them and their ridahs aftah us for Gray to run away 
from. 1 didn’t know why they hadn’t then, but 1 soon found 
out why theyall stopped as if to let me run away. Feelin 1 
was now safe, and that Gray had won out once more, 1 now 
pulled him into a walk. 

“1 was goin to raise up on my horse and wave my hat 


238 MELISSY AND THA CHILtENS 

callin on the men to come on, come on, when feelin for the 
hat, I found it had gone with the canteens, so 1 shook my fist 
at the Mexian who, though out of range, fired at me in re- 
turn for my greetings, we then went walkin along takin a 
a mouthful of fresh air, and noticin what the Mexicans were 
doin behind us, sorry for the loss of the canteens,, wonderin 
what the men would do for watah next day,, their canteens 
bein gone, and how 1 was to get anothah hat. Sorry too for 
Gray as 1 see the blood stains on his hide and his blood clot- 
ted ear. I had begun to remembah what Mistus Clarrisy said 
to me about fetchin the colt home in good shape, when I jess 
happened to look away to' my right and there runnin through 
the grass was a horse and his ridah. They had started way 
up the wood to cross the plain to the marsh pint to head me 
off. That was the reason the Mexican horsemen who failed 
to get me at the drinkin place had run us out on the plain, 
and their horses bein loaded with antelope carcasses, had stop- 
ped. They had posted the ridah at the edge of the wood 
where they thought his run to the marsh pint would be short- 
ah than mine which he would make sure if they failed 
to take me in at the watah. This they had done on seein me 
ride into the timbah. They calculated the two ridahs would 
meet, and the Spanish cahbine would do the rest. The party 
sent down the woods to kill me at the grassy pool had failed, 
thanks to Gray who knode it wasn’t no black boys comin 
among the trees in no paschah lot and got away from there. 
So the man up the wood line was in for the race and got the 
start of us. All this 1 thought out next day. There was no' 
time for anything but gittin away that day. The sun had 
sunk down below the grass line by that time, leavin a glowin 
light in the sky for a back ground to the scene, and away out 
there went the lone horseman skimmin the plain, pintin for 
the marsh to head us off. Why, dont youall know. Gray 
see that horse flyin way out this side of the strip of gold 
where the sun went down, soon as 1 did, and as he alters done 


GRAY WINS— JOSIAH’S LIFE THE STAKE 239 

in a race, made for the boys at night on a back mud road, at 
the drop of a hat, or quicker, he struck out, aimin to push 
the first nose undah the grape vine cloze line that got there, 
the colt supposin of cose, the boys had stretched one crossthe 
road at the paw paw patch by the side hill. 1 tried in vain 
to hold him in, so he wouldn’t be winded, spectin to do the 
best runnin on the final dash past where the Mexican ridahs’ 
run would strike the line we were on, and bein ahead of me, 
if he come out ahead, would dismount and make a breast- 
work of his horse, wait for me to come in range, or failin to 
head Gray off, would swing in behind the colt’s heels and 
try to pick me off, or failin, kill the colt, one. But, as 1 say, 
gemmelmen, 1 thought that all out dare as the watah Gray 
found in the wood, next day. 

“But whatevah 1 was thinkin all that time. Gray was flyin 
straight as a line up the side of the tall marsh grass, and the 
Mexican horse and ridah were skimhiin through the tall grass, 
sometimes almos lost to my sight, for 1 nevah took my eyes 
away from them. They were runnin straight and would 
strike my line of retreat if 1 beat them, jess this side the 
marsh pint and 1 would go to camp, or if they beat me, why 
then, less my ole cavalry revolvah helped us out, the Maash- 
all gray colt would change hands at least. 1 say 1 watched 
the othah ridah comin nearer and nearer, but facts were I 
was sick. My line was the long one. What would become 
of Melissy.!’ Was Gray lettin down.? Would he stand the 
run.? We were fast nearin each othah. The Mexican knode 
it. He had looked aftah his fiahin gear and made all his calcu- 
lations and jess where he would tumble from his horse and 
kill me or Gray, one, all had been planned while yet we were 
drinkin the cool watah and fillin the canteens at the pool. 
He with his coviah, or his bullet, one, would git there first. 
But the goodness! that gray colt now wet with foam, my 
eyes almost blinded as it flew in my face, was goin, determin- 
ed to spile their plans! To this very day, 1 know he wasn’t 


240 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


tetchin a hoof pint to the ground. He was flyin like a bird 
in the air! But so was the Mexican’s bay, his main and long 
tail streamin out as he flew. His ridah layin along his back, 
cahbine in hand, followin the horse’s nose pintin straight to 
git in on my line ahead of me. We were comin into range. 

“The Mexicans must have knode 1 only had an ole cavalry 
revolvah of five shots, and a shahp knife, though I didn’t 
know it till 1 thought of them when the race was nearly run. 
1 forgot them up to that time. It’s a wondah 1 hadn’t left 
them in camp. 1 must have failed to remove my belt and 
pistol holster and hang them on the tent pole when we went 
into camp aftah followin the Mexicans with the gun all day, 
but it was a very unusual thing to do, as we had ordahs to 
disahm as soon as the tents were pitched, less detailed as a 
gahd. Still watchin the Mexican it made me hug close to 
Gray’s back bone when 1 see the Mexican, now within gun 
shot of me, takin aim. Bang! went the Mexican’s cahbine, 
but he shot too high. Jess then remembahin my ole cavalry 
pistol, in my belt, I grabbed for it, and holdin to Gray’s mane 
with my left hand, my right fired the pistol. The Mexican’s 
horse stummeled almost to a fall, but recoverin his feet on he 
went, each jump fetchin him nearer to me, but slower now. 
My ball had hit him! 

“The Mexican’s horse now begun to show he had been hit 
by my one shot. He was goin, but slower. He was hahdly 
lopin now. Though my haht was way up in my throat, for 
we must soon meet less the Mexican picked me off, for he 
was still tryin to load his gun for a last shot, we would run 
up togethah now in a few more jumps. 1 fiahd my pistol 
seems to me pint blank at the Mexican who still spurin his 
foamflecked horse was tryin to load his cahbine as he come, 
but strange to say, though at short range, 1 couldn’t 
hit ridah nor horse again, aftah my first shot, nor could he, 
me. 1 remembah grabbin at my belt for my knife as Gray 
jumped past the Mexican horse, and of strikin at his ridah. 


GRAY WINS— JOSIAH’S LIFE THE STAKE 241 

who might have brained me with his clubbed cahbine, but he 
didn’t, and how the Mexican’s horse as we passed him al- 
most rubbed me from my seat, as he fell into line behind 
Gray, who, if he was winded, didn’t show it a bit. The Mex- 
ican was now droppin back all the time. He had lost the 
race, and the slower the horse come, seemed to me, the fast- 
ah the ridah shot. 1 nevah kin tell you what become of his 
lead. It didn’t hit us. Bang! bahg! I could hear the gun way 
behind Gray’s heels, and less the Mexican hit us now, we had 
won. 

“1 felt my horse weaknin undah me and lookin back see 
the Mexican bay had stopped. He was standin still. His 
head hangin down in the grass, his ridah tryin to take anoth- 
ah shot ar me, but he failed to shoot, and the men see aftah- 
wards that his gun was empty. He had burned his last car- 
tridge. But there was anothah shot fiahd, then a loud cheer 
sounded as Gray wabbled around the marsh pint and stopped 
still. Some soldiahs grabbed me from Gray’s back, though 
1 seen none of them until 1 come to myself and found Lieu- 
tenant Spillman and a squad of horsemen tryin their best to 
keep life in me, while Gray was standin there waitin for me, 
wet as a drowned rat, pa win like mad, but all right for anoth- 
ah race ceptin the red creases the bullets cut in his flesh. 

“Lieutenant Spillman seein me ride away from camp alone, 
and bein fearsome the Mexicans would capchah me and the 
colt, as the plains were full of Mexican scouts and thieves 
followin the ahmies to rob and murder, had ordered a sah- 
geant’s squad to horse and had followed me, with the men 
startin on the ride, he said, as they see me leave the marsh 
pint. He had pushed on to that place spectin to toiler to the 
wood and share with his men the watah found. But by the 
time theyall got to the tall marsh grass, they see Gray come 
runnin out of the wood down close to the marsh line. He 
was soon follered by a bunch of Mexicans shootin as they 
come, spectin Gray would run along the marsh, and satisfied 


242 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


less he was shot he would beat the Mexican ridahs to the pint 
of the marsh, they dismounted, hidin their horses behind the 
high grass and some prickly pears growin there and see ev- 
erything goin on down by the woods. 

“The squad had seen the Mexicans halt and dismount and 
was so anxious about the gray colt and his ndah, the horse- 
man runnin alone way up the wood line wasn’t seen till he 
was as far out on the plain is was Gray. The Mexian ridah, 
his cahbine in hand, made straight for the marsh where they - 
all stood, while Gray and the cullud boy was compelled to 
ride a bee line to the pint where the two men must meet. 
He couldn’t go to one side, he must come directly to them. 
It was his only road of escape. The soldiahs were afraid to 
run to meet the cullud man, or the Mexican, for they would 
be seen by the Mexican, and he would turn back and escape. 
It was agreed that course would stop the race, and sure save 
the life of the black boy, but it would too save the life of the 
Mexican, so it was determined that Gray would take all the 
chances of beatin out. Anyway they had some long shots 
among the boys and they were picked out for tahget practice 
in case the gray colt should stummel and so loose a half min- 
it in time. If he didn’t he would win out, so there was a heap 
of money lookin for takers, but not a cent to bet on the 
Spanish bay horse comin like a bird cross lots. Every cent 
of wealth was up on the gray colt that beat Cappen’s flyer 
leavin Walnut Tree Lane. And now the horses were so near 
it was seen they were a sheet of foam. The Mexican had 
been shootin at the black boy. He was about to shoot aftah 
takin a long aim. There was a puff of smoke from the 
gray, the bay stummeled to his knees, the Mexican’s cahbine 
almost fell to the grass, the Spanish bay had been hit. 
He was comin slower now. Then Gray skipped past 
the pint where the bay should have met and stopped 
him, and the bay fell in behind, his nose at the tip of 
Gray’s tail. There were more shots. Gray had reached the 


GRAY WINS— JOSIAH’S LIFE THE STAKE 243 

marsh limit. The Mexican horse stopped. The Mexican 
was tryin to shoot once more, when a shahpshooter fiahd, and 
the Mexican ridah fell from his horse. 

“1 have told you the rest. Soon as we could weall went to 
the Mexican’s horse. True to his trainin the pore wounded 
horse stood stock still. His ridah lay at his feetjshot through 
his forehead, dead, his brown face all blood. The horse had 
been shot in the shouldah. The boys tried to walk him but 
he laid down. Lieutenant knowin the wolves of the plains 
and the buzzards of the air would eat the pore horse alive, 
ordered one of his men to shoot him, usin the dead Mexican’s 
cahbine, but the gun bein found unloaded, and on searchin 
the body layin in the grass no cartridge bein found, the splen- 
did horse was killed by a shot from a cavalryman’s gun. 

“It was too late to go aftah the Mexican scouts. They had 
stood watchin the race to a close. By the time the boys had 
stripped the fine silvah mounted saddle and Spanish bridle 
from the horse, and the great silvah spurs from the feet of the, 
Mexican in the grass, and had divided the silvah dollahs found 
in the Mexian’s pocket among them, the dead greasah’s 
friends had gone back into the wood, and we started for a 
ride to camp in the gatherin gloom of night. O, 1 don’t 
know what would have become of me if we had been left to 
finish that race alone, but 1 spect a bareback Kaintucky bred 
colt, ridahless, would have straggled into camp, sometime that 
night, for that bay horse of the plains nevah could have caught 
him aftah his ridah fell. Aftah that day, the soldiah boys 
were willin to back Gray for all the money comin to them 
next pay day. 


CHAPTER XX. 

THE NIGHT ADVANCE AT PALO ALTO. 

i £ 'T' HE next day we halted in camp, where I left the 
^ Brigade to go for watah, and togethah with most 
of the company 1 rode back to the scene of the race of the 
evenin befoah, findin the Mexicans had carried the dead man 
away and a cloud of buzzards feastin on the horse. 

“We went on down the line of the marsh to the woods, 
pickin up the lost canteens, where the men and horses had 
all the good watah they could drink. All the way across and 
returnin, a company of Mexicans skirted about us but did not 
attack. By night the balance of Gineral Taylor’s ahmy had 
come up to ouah position. In the mawnin the ahmy moved 
followin the rapid movin horsemen and fiel ahtilery of the 
Mexicans all day long without any fightin, haltin at night by 
the side of a rough timbahd country said to skirt the Rio 
Grande Rivah opposite the City of Matamoras in ole Mexico. 

“The Mexican ahmy it was thought would here make a 
stand, and 1 heard the Cappen say, ‘the advance reported Gin- 
eral Aristah, the Mexican commandah, would make his line 
of battle in the timbah between us and the rivah.’ So it was, 
the fightin we had been in for several days as we advanced 
from the Gulf was to be continued, and 1 wished 1 was home 
with Melissy and the chillens from the wah. That race was 
enough for me. 

“We were camped on the grassy plain side the scrubby 
woods and the tall cactus cones. 

“Ouah wagon train was soon unpacked, rations issued, and 
a jollier set of soldiah boys nevah set down on the grass to a 
suppah of hahd bread, bacon ham, and black coffee. We 
244 


THE NIGHT ADVANCE AT PALO ALTO 245 

were all ready for sleep and most of the men had spread their 
blankets and were layin down, when a mail bag was brought 
to the company and lettahs from home were handed about. 
Aftah Cappen Maashall had read his lettah from his mothah, 
he called me to him and told me the lettah said, ‘Melissy 
and the chillens were here last Sunday aftahnoon and took 
suppah with the housekeepah and are to be told when we git 
a lettah from the ahmy. They are well and have plenty.’ 

•‘Cappen seemed not atall sleepy aftah his long day in the 
saddle, but talked with me about home and fathahand moth- 
ah, and his sistah Clarissy, and how happy we as boys alters 
had been at home, and when he went to school takinme with 
him. We remembahd Melissy and the chillens, Cappen sayin 
he hoped soon to hear they belonged to the Kunnel for they 
would then be sure of a good home as long as they lived. We 
talked about the till bed room up stairs where we spent ouah 
sleepin houahs while we were boys at home, and of the many 
foolish things we had done, and how rich we alters was when 
the walnut trees bore good crops. While we talked a rigi- 
ment of infantry went silently maachin by ouah campin place 
and disappeared in the timbah on ouah right. They had 
hahdly been lost to ouah sight in the dusky woods when an 
orderly walked quickly to Cappen, handin him a note, and as 
quickly passed on to anothah company. Aftah readin the 
papah by the light of a match as he lit a cigah, Cappen said: 

“‘Well Siah, we’re in for it tonight, go and tell Lieutenant 
Spillman to quietly, and without any bugle ordahs, git the 
company into line and be quick about it.’ 

“1 hurried along the officiah’s row of camp outfits, a 
blanket spread on the ground and a saddle, that was all. 1 
found Lieutenant Spillman readin a lettah by the light of a 
mess lantern. While 1 was givin the ordahs 1 glanced at the 
lettah. It was from Miss Clarrisy Maashail. 

“The company was hastily wakened, the horses hitched in 
fouahs standin all ready saddled, were bridled. The men 


246 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


mounted, fell in, and were ready to go by the time Cappen’s 
blankets and mine were rolled up and strapped. 

“1 stood holdin Selim and Gray, when 1 heard Cappen 
Maashall tell Lieutenants Spillman and Caatah, ‘we are to ad- 
vance in company formation to a valley in the chaparel 
bresh and trees. As we go bear to the right. When the val- 
ley is reached ordahs will be sent along the line to halt and 
form in two ranks cahbine in hand ready to advance up the 
hill. Tell the men to go very slow to the lill valley, and af- 
tah ordahs are there given to climb the hill keepin in tetch 
with the man on the right. It is’nt intended to do 
more than to covah the left of the infantry alre ady gone in, 
who are movin spectin to uncovah a battery on the ridge 
beyond this position. We are to be in position to check any 
flank movement attempted by the enemy, in which case aftah 
the Mexican position is shown the men will be dismounted, 
and fight as infantry.’ 

“Lieutenant Caatah now took command of the skirmishers 
and moved into the shadows of the woods. Immediately 
Cappen Maashall rode down the company line sayin, ‘men, 
this is a company detail, keep still, have cahbines all ready to 
use, tetch the horse on youah right, go very slow, and be 
quick to obey ordahs. We only expect to git up close to 
ouah infantry’s left, find the Mexican position, when we’ll 
halt and dismount ready for events. Nobody’s goin to chaage 
fiel ahtillery with cavalry aftah night.’ 

“1 tightened Selim’s girth aftah he come from company 
front. Everybody was now ready to go. Lieutenant Spill- 
man’s voice rich and low commanded: ‘By foahs, right, 
maach.’ And the company was movin into the woods. The 
bresh and small trees and cacti was so thick, company forma- 
tion was hahd to keep. Soon we were broken into squads 
movin down a slight hill in the dark, 1 could hahdly toiler 
Selim and his ridah atall. On we groped, a hundred Kain- 
tucky horses and men creepin along a mong the trees and 


THE NIGHT ADVANCE AT PALO ALTO 247 

bresh and so dark you could scarcely see where the men on 
youah right was. 

^‘When the crowd got to the valley the men stopped and 
with hahd work were corralled and in line of battle. We 
were hahdly again in line when a man dashed through the 
bushes, horseback, and bein led to Cappen Maashall, said: 
‘Compliments of Gineral Hamer. You are now near the left 
of the First Indiana Infantry. About half way up the risin 
ground on yoah front you’ll tetch their left. You hear that 
fiahn, that’s the Mexican line on the infantry’s front. We 
havn’t uncovahd ouah position yit. There may be a masked 
battery in the woods beyond so dont move an inch aftah you 
find ouah left. Gineral Aristah, a fightin Mexican Gineral, 
commands the Mexicans, remembah. Now Cappen, move 
mighty careful. Git your position up the hilly wood side, 
dismount and dont bring on a fight whatevah you do. Tell 
yoah skirmish line as soon as shot at, to fall back without re- 
plyin. Good night, Cappen.’ And the messengah was gone 
in the dahkness. 

“Lieutenant Spillman now pushed ahead into the night 
among the trees. Aftah while he returned say in he had in- 
structed Lieutenant Caatah not for any reason to fire a shot, 
but as soon as attacked to fall back to the company lines and 
report. We now waited only a minlt, when the buglah by 
Cappen’s side, in a quick shahp note sounded, ‘forward,’ then 
slow.’ As we struck the hill movin among the bushes and 
hahdly able to git through atall, a mere shadow, it was so 
hahd to see it, in Gray’s front said, speakin to me: ‘Siah, 
this is one of the times when Gray brings up the rear, come, 
cuddle up close.’ That was the very last time I heard my ole 
boy frien, John Clay Maashall’s voice. It was what he used 
to say to me v/hen he felt me crawlin into his bed cold nights 
at home, when we were the ole Kunnel’s boys. Sence that 
night ride at PaloAlto, though we were men grown at the 
time he was killed, all the beautiful life he lowed me to enjoy 


248 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


withhim, seems to have been but a dream, in which I had 
been an actor sence the deep snow, the fight, and the crocus 
blooms come by the ole summah house. 1 pressed Gray as 
close up to Selim’s side as I could do, feelin my leg rub hahd 
agin that of my boy companion’s, as of old time, in the lill 
room at the head of the stairs. 

“Aftah that the shadowy line of horses and ridahs were al- 
most motionless. Every horse seemed to know the line had 
run against a wall built sqare across its path by the hand of 
fate. We seemed to have gone as far as the horses could 
crowd themselves, into the blackness among the scrubby 
trees. The ragged line was as completely stopped as if a lone 
horse wanderin through darkness among prickly pear leaves 
and tangled bresh had given up, and stopped for good. When 
from mouth to ear was whispahd through the night, ‘halt!’ 

“We had tetched the infantry’s left. We had scarcely 
received the low spoken ordah that come down the line, when 
Lieutenant Caatah’s skirmishers were fiahd on from the front, 
and come back in a hurry as ordahed to do. It was now 
gitin interestin to us who were compelled to set in ouah sad- 
dles about where the enemy’s bullets must fly through the 
branches of the trees that were ready to bresh us from ouah 
seats if ouah horses moved. There was no use dodgin as the 
balls went singin about, you might dodge to the wrong side. 
But then it was so dark you couldn’t be seen if you did dodge. 
So Lieutenant Spillman ordahed a dismount, and the men to 
git close to the ground. It wasn’t long till we had some 
wounded horses that were compelled to stand on their feet. 

“All this time the men had been fiahin at the flash of agun 
up the hill and so far they thought they held the Mexicans 
back, protectin the infantry’s left. Latah on in the wah we 
would have known the Mexicans were only tryin to hold us 
back so they could take their ahtilery gun away with them, 
and that should we walk up the hill, they would run away 
without the gun. 


THE NIGHT ADVANCE AT PALO ALTO 249 

“The men were huggin close to the trees or as near the 
earth as they could as the balls went ovah head, but the Offi- 
ahs kept their saddles, and seein my Cappen in the saddle, 1 
was compelled to set on Gray and dodge. 

“While it was rainin lead, a horseman slowly picked his 
way from the right down the line dodgin about among the 
groups of men and horses inquiahin for the offiahs, findin them 
huddled close togethah near Gray, 1 heard his voice say: ‘Gem- 
melmen, Kunnel Munday, of the Second Kaintucky, is with 
the infantry on yoah right, havin missed youall as he come 
through the woodland. He sends his compliments to Cappen 
Maashall, and says the enemy will kill too many of ouah 
horses if we stop now. We an’t think of fallin back and 
waitin for day, so an advance of the line has been determined 
on as the best way out. You are to dismount the men and 
form them as skirmishers, drop your horses behind the line. 
At the bugle ordahs advance slowly, keepin in tetch with the 
infantry’s left. Be ready to stop when through the timbah. 
Don’t go further in pursuit less you hear the command to 
advance. Good by. 

“When the horseman handin a note to Cappen Maashall 
was gone to the right and rear, the horses were sent to the 
rear in fours, the officahs remainin mounted. The men were 
ready for the advance. A bugle sounded its quick shahp 
notes away to the right, Selim who had been standin directly 
in front of Gray moved aftah the advancin men gropin through 
the bresh undah his very nose. By the light of a gun flash I 
had a glimpse of the Cappen as he leaned ovah Selim’s neck 
as if watchin the soldiahs in front of him. 

“The horse now in my front kept step with the men but 
hahdly moved. None of the men had been hit as yet sence 
we struck the hill in the first place, and 1 hadn’t seen a sur- 
geon sence we started. The men were creepin through the 
bresh close to the ground risin to fiah when shot at. The in- 
fantry boys crowded us, their men mixed with ouahs. There 


250 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


was a wild cheer. Everybody was now goin forward on a 
brisk walk. I heard a voice say, ‘they're on the go boys, but 
beinahurry.' The dim light ahead of us showed we were 
nearly to the top of the hill and soon would be out of the 
woods. I could now see the ridah in my front fairly well. 
It was my ole time boy frien, 1 was about to speak to, the 
Cappen, when a blaze of fiah flashed in my face, I heard the 
distant sound of an ahtillery gun and felt 1 was fallin, fall- 
in way down a rock-faced Kaintucky cliff, down and still 
down, to lodge among some cedah bushes gro win on a narrow 
shelf of stone at a dizzy height. Then the fallin body slipped 
from the grasp of the cedah limbs, ovah the shelf it went, 
and down, to be stopped in its fall by a tree limb once broken 
by a storm, only to break away again, this time to carry the 
tree's limb with it, and down, down went the limb, while up, 
up from far below a deep gash cut in limestone by watahs 
fallin from a great height rushed through the air, up, up, up, 
to meet the fallin body, the two objects met. Glassy eyes 
from out that rock cleft at the base of the cliff of stone saw 
standin on the very brink of the height from which they had 
fallen, some black men. A faint voice called from the cleft 
for help, but help was denied, they were Quigley blacks. 

“The crushed fohm wedged into the cleft in the rock at the 
base of the cliff was bein fast covahd by watah, scaldin hot. 
It had risen till a bloody face in its depths was almost hidden. 
Then the crevice begin to close its jagged sides. When the 
crevice had so far closed it was only a seam and the face was 
almost lost from view. 

“A voice rang out on the night air: Forward, guide 
right, go slow, the greasers are fallin back.' Then as the 
flash from a hundred cahbines lit up the woods as the com- 
pany advanced, so returning memory flashed its light across 
the lill mind left the imprisoned one, and I knode I had been 
wounded, that stid of bein in hot watah fastened forevah from 
the sight of men in a limestone rock seam, held fast and left 


THE NIGHT ADVANCE AT PALO ALTO 251 

to drown, I was really fastened to the ground by some great 
weight and bathed in blood. But one limb, an ahm, could 
be moved atall. My breast was bein crushed, 1 was smoth- 
erin. My one freed hand soon found the body of a man lay 
across my body. Streams of blood were delugin my cheeks 
and soakin my cloze. Try in to move the crushin weight, 
my hand felt the silky hair of a fine bred horse. Then 1 
knode a horse had fallen with his ridah across me and it was 
that weight that was crushin my life out. 

“Then there come to me a vision of the sweet watah in the 
grassy drinkin pool in the timbah down by the marsh. I 
tried to drink, O, I was so thirsty! But my canteen was lay- 
in undah me, nor could 1 help the man layin on my 
breast. My hand rested ovah a fast failin haht. Then 
ti was still. There was now a corpse layin across my 
breast, the man had died in my ahms. Genie's hands then 
laid my cheek on her lap as in the ole time at home 
it often rested there, as then, 1 heard her loved voice, follered 
by the calls of the toll gate hounds runnin in pack along the 
cedah fringed cliffs skirtin Stillery Ridge, and I knode as 1 lis- 
sened to the bays of the runnin hounds, every turn the flyin 
fox made. The wellknown voices of the pack told me where 
each dawg run in the race circlin the cawn fiels, doublin 
the berryin ground side the Baptis meetin house on the hill 
above the ole cawn whiskey stillery. 

“They come floatin into the fill cabin at the toll gate house 
where 1 thought 1 was layin, tellin me that Spotted Susie, the 
dear ole soul, companion of the lost white chile, the mothah 
dawg that so soffly stepped on the puncheon floah in that 
death room to set her down at my feet, and caress the dead 
chile’s hand, was distancin all the rest. 

“Then the voices of the ole and young hound dawgs 1 had 
known so well when among the Kaintucky hills faded away, 
and there came to me pain, only pain. 1 waited long for the 
toll gate man — 1 knode was layin on the knotty fiah wood 


252 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

poles — to come and free me from the weight that held me 
down. 1 heard his voice condemin the cullud boy found 
without a pass. There was a long, low ravenous growl on 
the sill of the stoopy cabin doah. The gaze of a pair of blood 
red eyes met my own. There were growls, snappins, yelps, 
the doahway was full of burnin eyeballs and gnashin teeth, 
the fightin, hungry dawgs rushed in and filled the room. 

“They were tearin each othah. They were all about 
me now. Dawgs, great red mouthed, foamin, lollin-tongued 
dawgs were climbin all ovah the hearth stones as Melissy, 
pointin to the dawgs comin down the chimbley where once 
we see the silvah light of the stah, said: ‘Josiah, hope is 
gone, the stah of Bethlehem is burned out, you must die. 
And youah wife and chillens sold to go away from 
their Kaintucky home, away from the Maashals and the lill 
grave by the great oak tree.’ And then a stranger’s 
voice went on to say: ‘Come now, be quick men, let 
the wolves fight it out ovah the body of the horse, they’ll 
pick his bones and scrape them clean, anyway, layin here or 
thrown into a trench it’s all the same to them, he is their 
meat. So too with a soldiah, less he's a Mexican filled with 
red pepper, for a wolf wont eat a greaser.’ Then a voice 
said: ‘Now hold the light lower among the high grass and 
the thick bushes. There's Selim with his head all shot away, 
and the Cappen, all that’s left of him aftah the shell struck 
him. And chucked down among the prickly pears by his 
side lays the dead cullud man he brought from home with 
him, all killed by the only ahtillery shot fiahd into ouah faces 
tonight. Look! dont you see them.^’ 

“When 1 was again awake, the soldiah boys were standin 
around me as 1 lay on the ground. The boys were waitin 
to see me open my eyes. The surgeon had found a piece of 
shell had plowed a wide furrow across my head, and findin 
the skull not broken had declared 1 had been scratched in jess 
the right place and might live a hundred years. 


THE NIGHT ADVANCE AT PALO ALTO 253 

“At last, aftah a whole day had passed my eyes were again 
open, and 1 found Lieutenant Spillman kneelin by my side 
packin my head in the coldest watah to be had in camp. 
Soon as Lieutenant see 1 knode him, he said: ‘Lay still my 
boy. Gray is found at last, unhurt, and the doctah says you 
are good for the rest of the wah, so sleep on.’ As 1 lay won- 
dahdin why Cappen Maashall didn’t come to welcome me 
back to life, 1 heard the sound of distant fiahin. 1 was told 
aftahwards it was the sound of the evenin gun. The sun was 
goin down behind the horizon. The battle of PaloAlto had 
been fought, Gineral Aristah commandin the Mexican forces 
had lost. Gineral Taylor, who led the American troops, had 
won. 


CHAPTER XXI. 

CAPTAIN MARSHALL’S SLAYER, WHILE DYING 
IMPOSES A TRUST. 

i i f WAS not to meet Cappen Maashall in life again. It 
A was his body that had lain side me in the bresh. It was 
he who died in my ahms. It had been the bodies of the horse, 
Selim, and his ridah that fell on me and crushed me among 
the prickly pear leaves and the broken bresh. My cloze had 
been soaked in their shed blood. Cappen Maashall, the hope 
of the Maashall fambly, and his horse had been killed. The 
shell that killed them, wounded me. That much was known, 
because the ahtillery gun in ambush at the hill’s top, taken by 
ouah men was fiahd but once. The gun was fiahd by Cap- 
pen De Lavegah’s own hand, aftah he was mortally wounded 
by an approachin trooper. He was shot in the breast as he 
sighted the gun. Ouah men in the advance discovahd the 
masked gun. There was a fight for it. Lavegah was wound- 
ed, but though to death, he fiahd his last shot. It was a last 
effort of defense by a desperately wounded commandah, re- 
sultin in the only loss ouah company sustained, the death of 
Cappen Maashall. When at last 1 woke, Cappen Maashall’s 
body and that of the man who killed him, were layin side by 
side on the grass near me, wrapped in blankets, covahd by 
their battle flags. The commandah of the Mexican gun lived 
long nough to know his men were driven away and his gun 
lost. Everything that could be done for the dying Mexican 
was done by ouah men. Though not able to speak a 
word of English, he managed to take from about his 
neck a miniature of a mothah and chile, and a silvah cross, 
that of the Christ. These he gave Lieutenant Spillman with 
254 


CAPT. MARSHALL’S SLAYER WHILE DYING IMPOSES A TRUST 255 

his own failin hand, lookin pleadingly into his captor’s face, 
and died. The ahms of the dead man were taken by Lieu- 
tenant Caatah. His purse of Mexican gold was cared for by 
Kunnel Munday, but the picchah and the silvah cross were 
kept by Lieutenant Spillman to whom given as his sacred 
trust, some time to be given to his wife, if found, but if not, 
with the gold to be turned into the government, to be sent to 
the Mexican government, when the wah was ovah. 

“Gemmelmen, I’ll not speak of my grief on bein told of 
the death of Cappen Maashall and of his horse, or how 
much 1 suffered as 1 thought of home and friens, of their great 
loss because of my lifelong companion and frien’s death. 
Now that he was gone, 1 found that I had nevah so much as 
thought about the possibility of his bein killed. The body of 
ouah Cappen was so badly shot away it couldn’t be seen atall. 
Even the face, so kind and pleasant in life, that well-known 
and dearly loved face could only be seen as a part of its shape 
was shown through the flag that covahd it. All day long sol- 
diahs were walkin about that face there shaped through the 
prostrate stahs and stripes, then silently goin away. 

“The company was simply so shocked, it was mute. All 
day long the gahd tramped their beats with clangin sabers 
and reversed cahbines. All day long the boys dressed my 
achin head with fresh watah as 1 thought of the ole fathah 
and mothah at home, who had been so kind to a lill black 
boy, left by his pore mothah one snowy day, through nearly 
all his life time, and of Melissy and the chillens. 

“Wonderin how Cappen Maashall’s death would affect them, 
1 was haht sick. Then there was my own Mistus Clarrisy, 
who kissed me good by when 1 come away. How about her.? 

“Selim would nevah stand by the lawn gate where she and 
mothah bid me farewell, again. It seemed to me that Wal- 
nut Tree Lane gate was an unlucky place to part from friens. 
And closin my eyes to shet out all sight of the world as 1 


256 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

hoped, my ole fathah, the deacon, who now had been dead 
many years, was seen goin away from the Walnut Tree Lane 
gate, best he could, helped by ole Lemuel, goin late in the 
evenin, spectin to come back some Chrismas day for the ap- 
ple jack he had left in the barle. 

"That day. Lieutenant Spillman took command of the 
company and Lieutenant Caatah handed his resignation to 
Kunnel Munday. He was given a leave of absence by the 
Gineral commandin and when the ahmy moved aftah the 
battle of PaloAlto, he returned home to Kaintucky. 

“O, had brave Lieutenant Caatah', a man the company de- 
lighted in, only remained with the rigiment, and in his turn 
been wrapped in the battle flag of his country by the hands 
of comrades, and laid away undah the sands of Mexico, if 
needs be, the awful years spent in hopeless insanity by sweet 
Mistus Clarrisy, had nevah been her lot, and there would have 
been no mystery of the ole watah mill, to be purged by fiah. 

“As the Second Kaintucky Cavalry were to camp on the 
battle fiel until the supply trains all come up from the gulf 
ship landin, when it was undahstood the ahmy would cross 
the Rio Grande rivah into Ole Mexico. 

“Cappen Maashall’s body and that of his dead enemy, his 
slayer, were not berried until late in the evenin of the second 
day aftah the battle. That gave the Cappen’s wounded 
black boy a chance to so farrecovahasto be able to be at his 
frien’s grave. When the buryin detail was made up it con- 
sisted of the Second Indiana Infantry rigiment, and the Sec- 
ond Kaintucky horse, the rigiments that had made the night 
advance for position for the next day’s fight. 

“Cappen Maashall’s body was placed on an American ah- 
tillery gun. The Mexican oflicah was laid on his own ahtil- 
lery piece, it was the very gun that had been shootin at us 
evah sence we left the Gulf of Mexico’s shores. This was 
known because we follered the gun to the skirt of wood side 


CAPT. MARSHALL’S SLAYER WHILE DYING IMPOSES A TRUST 257 

the plains, and capchahd it in the timbah. The men hadfol- 
lered it so long they knode its voice when it spoke, and it had 
been talkin to them all the time. 

“The Mexican’s body was covahd by its own battle flag, 
taken with the gun, and drawn by foah horses, ridahless, 
Cappen Maashall’s body wrapped in his battle flag was drawn 
by foah Kaintucky grays, picked from among ouah company 
horses, each horse ridden by its ownah, that day, as it was 
the mawnin we passed down Walnut Tree Lane for the wah 
in Mexico. 


CHAPTER XXII. 


BURYAL OF CAPTAINS MAASHALL AND DE LAVE- 
GAH. 

£ A S the evenin gun sounded, the bugles wailed and the 
two rigiments moved across the stunted wood plain 
to two graves dug in the sand in the shades of a wide spreadin 
live oak tree standin neath the banks of the Rio Grande rivah. 
My horse, Gray, carried me in his saddle, walkin behind Cap- 
pen Maashall’s body from camp to where we halted side the 
sandy graves, undah the hangin moss of that ole live oak 
tree. 

“The body of the Kaintucky officah was then taken from 
the gun, and by the hands of his neighborhood friens was 
carefully laid in his grave. Then the same hands laid the 
Mexican ofFicah’s body wrapped in his blankets, in a grave 
dug close side the man from Kaintucky. As an honah, the 
flag taken with the gun was laid ovah the Mexican’s fohm to 
crumble to dust with that of its commandah’s. The chaplain 
then sprinkled a shovel of sand into the graves. Then aftah 
depositin a union battle flag ovah the body of Cappen Maash- 
all, 1 bowed my head as the chaplain, speakin for hisself said: 

‘“Soldiers, comrades: Here on the banks of the Rio- 
Grande river; here in the shades of this overhanging 
tree; here in the earth beneath the shadow of his own 
country’s flag — no hostile hand shall ever tear from out the 
sicy where his shed blood helped to place its colors; here 
lying in the pure sand of this valley redeemed to freedom by 
American arms; here where the beautiful river, which gives 
life to this tree and causes nature’s habiliments of sorrow, 
trailing moss, to hang from its branches over these lowly 
258 


BURIAL OF CAPTAINS MAASHALL AND DE LAvEGAH 259 

graves, glides silently by, its bosom studded with dew drops 
from many mountains’ sides, and shady dell? far away; here 
where the mocking bird sings among blooming flowers, and 
ever springing buds, we lay our friend and brother beside him 
whom he never met in life to know; their blood commingling 
as though kindred in the sands about their beds. Strangers 
in life, here we lay them to be comrades in death. 

‘“Captain John Clay Marshall, of Kentucky, was a soldier 
of untarnished honor. He was a brave commander, a true 
man in all his associations, a loving son, brother, friend. M ay 
his dust lie undisturbed in that rest which follows the redistri- 
bution of man’s mortal parts back to mother earth. Re- 
leased from what we call existence, may he here sweetly 
sleep though his head is lain on a pillow of sand, far away 
from that smoothed for him by a dear mother's loving hand. 
Sleep thou comrade, sleep, sweetly sleep, while birds shall 
sing and crystal waters shall flow near thy lowly bed. Sleep, 
soldier, friend, dutiful son of a proud commonwealth, asso- 
ciate of imperial states of the American union, Kentucky. 
SleepjUnfretted, sleep on. Thy name shall not be forgotten, 
but the rather shall it be inserted on honor’s scroll by the na- 
tion, thus to be retained in the memory of its citizens and all 
lovers of freedom as that of one of her children, who at his 
country’s call moistened the earth on the advanced line of her 
conquering legions with his own precious blood in a strange 
land; only a stranger land for a brief period of time in the 
world’s history, for it is the destiny of the American people 
to acquire every foot of the earth’s surface that shall hungrily 
drink the blood of their soldiery shed in the discharge of their 
duty to sustain the republic’s flag. 

“‘Friend, released from the galling leash of mortality, thy 
disintegrating body shall here repay to earth alt its loan to 
thee, borrowed to be used in the construction of a temporary 
abiding place for an immortal soul while on its earth pilgrim- 
age. O, paltry loan. Earth, take back thy gift however 


260 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


prized by us; be it thine again. Soul, thou indestructable 
part of creation called cause, now lingering near thy cast 
off earthly habitation, the shell we now deposit here in this 
sandy plain. We pray thee, now that thou hast returned to 
the place from whence you came for a brief visit to mortality, 
forget not this spot of assimilating valley clod where thy 
once fair garment was lain. 

“‘Behold, while the rolling sea, the Gulf of Mexico, shall 
unceasingly wash its surf-beaten shores, the pathway of un- 
numbered centuries to come, near this sacred spot, and the 
flags of nations yet unborn shall go streaming its length 
along, like battle flags in the centuries before them, only to 
be in turn forgotton of men, forever to disappear from 
off the seething billows’ crests. Thou dust, once akin to 
mortality by contact, now laid here shall never be disturbed by 
any hostile hand. The nation stands guard at thy tomb . 

“‘The stars from the flag that enfolds thy clay have not set 
in eternal night, for in that place where God is the light, 
they shall be fixed reflectors that shall give light to thy 
unshackled feet. In their radiance thy feet shall shine, 
they shall not stumble, nor lag as here, in darkness, for the 
stars of the American flag, in the light of his countenance shall 
never pale. 

“‘Shall we now say fare the well, John Clay Marshall, 
farewell for thy father, mother, sister, an eternal farewell, be- 
cause thou art not. O, no! no! Immortality has but lain 
down the dross of earth when the soul of man returns to God 
who gave it. Freed spirit, 1 but recite the faith all the world 
of mankind of all kindreds and tongues find deposited in their 
hearts without any teaching. Men, wherever found by what 
we call civilization, instinctively treasure a belief that their 
souls are immortal, and in some form give expression to that 
belief before they know of our civilization, at all. 

“‘Spirit, thou art scaling the mountain peaks of thine own 
land, beyond the firmament where will shine the silver stars 


BURIAL OF CAPTAINS MAASHALL AND DE LAvEGAH 26l 

risen from the flag we deposit in this grave. Thy voice blends 
with the voices jtheir trilling songs of love and peace this 
world shall yet shout in trumpet tones, when the milk white 
banner of the brotherhood of man shall take the place of all 
the battle flags of governments, on its crust. Then, O, then, 
shall there be no more war, pestilence, plague or famine, no 
more sighing, no more crying nor dying.’ 

“Then, as the drum beats rolled along the Rio Grande 
rivah, from among ouah camps, and were replied to as if in 
defiance by drum beats from the Mexican camps across the 
rivah, the men surroundin the unfilled graves in the sand be- 
neath the droopin moss rustlin in the eyenin air above them, 
bowed their faces tords the earth as the chaplain said: 

“‘Author of love, in heaven above, we come 
At evening gun and roll of drum. 

Bugle’s wail of plaintive lay. 

Our comrades’ dust to lay away — 

In the flag of his country folded. 

Beneath these boughs drooping his grave above. 

We lay this clod of clay of rest in quest. 

Slight tribute to heaven’s treasure trove 
Hidden away. Of earth’s purest, best — 

By potter’s hand divine to be molded. 

O, direct Thou his spirit’s way the skies along ! 

O, guide its flight to realms of song 
Where Eden’s door swung wide, before him waiting 
With eternities of bliss for such as this. Thy creating — 
Where, tattered, torn, earth’s born by Thee will be consoled.' 


262 


MELISSV AND THA CHILLENS 


“The chaplain’s prayer finished there was a salute from 
the guns of the Indiana Infantry at the open graves; then as 
all heads were bowed, the grveswere slowly filled with sand. 
The bugles sounded the retreat. We rode away from 
the now sacred spot. I had left my good frien the first time 
without his consent sence that Chrismas day long ago. 

“We were some days crossin the Rio Grande aftah the 
Mexicans went away from the front. We then maached to 
Camargo. Then we rode as an advance across great sandy 
plains, often seventy miles from watah to watah, through 
miles and miles of prickly pears, great high cactus cones, 
through sand storms undah the burnin suns of Mexico to 
Monterey. 

“At Camargo 1 was able to do duty and was adopted by 
Cappen Spillman, as the property of Mistus Clarrisy, and for 
safe keepin was given the trust placed in Cappen’s hands, the 
picchahs and the cross by the dyin Mexican officah. They 
were placed on the bottom of my ole leathah ahmy bag and 
tied fast 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

DYING ENEMY’S TRUST HELD SACRED BY ALL. 

( i P VERY officah in the rigiment had promised Cappen 
Spillman to see the dead Mexican otficah’s trust 
faithfully kept should he and his servant be killed in action. 

“The precious things were fastened about my neck in that 
ole leathah bag day and night. I had strict ordah’s that no 
man was to look at the face of the Mexican mothah and the 
chile again until we had failed to find the subjects, and had 
ordahs to return home, then they were to be given to some 
Catholic priest with their history, in trust, to find the origi- 
nals, or to the Mexican government direct. So that every- 
where 1 went that greasy leathah bag, containin the picchahs, 
went with me, tied fast about my neck. 

“It was undahstood that if Gray was out run by a Mexican 
ridah’s horse and the boys failed to save me, my body was 
to go with the picchahs and the silvah cross, and this 1 had 
promised to the boys of the command in the name of my 
own wife and chillens, and for my dead commandah’s sake. 
Of course neathah at the time the Mexican officah died, nor 
yet at the time weall went into the battle of Monterey did we 
know the name of the Mexican officah who, as a prisonah, 
died at the wheel of his gun and whose one shot killed ouah 
own commandah. 

“On the maach, in camp, when we went into action at 
Monterey aftah crossin the rivah’s dry bed skirtin the moun- 
tain on whose high top waived ouah battle flag ovah the 
doomed city; as ouah company went dashin by Mexican bat- 
teries and up stony streets into the city of Monterey, where 
we found ouahselves surrounded by the enemy, were defeat- 
ed and compelled to fall back through beautiful residence 
streets of the horary ole town, the picchahs of mothah and 
chile and the cross of their Christ trusted to an enemy by a 
dyin Mexican soldiah, were as safe as was the life of the black 
man who carried them, as it afterwards appeared and were all 
the time, wherevah we went, goin straight to the ownah. 

263 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE BATTLE OF MONTEREY. THE STREET FIGHT. 

THE DEFEAT. THE RETREAT. CAPTAIN 
SPILLMAN WOUNDED. THE GRAY 
COLT KILLED. UNDER 
THE ROSES. 

i k I^URIN the fightin at Monterey, somebody supposin 
the Mexicans would surrendah as soon as the flag of 
the United States waved ovah the centah of the city, ordahd 
ouah company of horses to be ready to make a dash through 
the town and place ouah flag on the plaza in the very haht of 
the doomed place. With that in view we crossed the dry 
rock bed of what sometimes was a rivah, between ouah 
position and the city, one dark night. Daylight found us 
undah covah of the city walls stretched out along the dry 
rivah bed. We soon found we were near a gun planted at the 
foot of what was a principal street. There must have been a 
mistake about the city’s surrenderin that day, for we soon 
found the fellows at the street had found us out and were 
welcomin us to their city, and though none of ouah men were 
killed right away, they made things mighty interestin for us. 

“So one of ouah guns was brought across the ole rivah’s 
bed to silence the enemy, and ouah horse company leavin 
the infantry to hold the way out, if the way for a retreat was 
needed, made a dash up a stony street aftah the Mexican gun. 
Away we went, every man in his place ceptin the ridahs who 
had lost their horses. We filled the street from house wall to 
house wall. We dashed away on the keen run as we would 
have done had we been leavin the Maashall place for the wah 
again, but as there were few shots as we rode, the ahtillery 
264 


THE BATTLE OF MONTEREY. THE STREET FIGHT, 265 

gun havin run away, we soon slowed into a quick walk. 

“We passed by beautiful houses in groves of green trees, 
behind high stone walls, or surrounded by rose hedges in full 
bloom. We had no time, it seemed, to watah ouah horses 
in the riplin streams runnin by the side of the streets, so the 
mountain watah in the stone lined guttahs flowed on untasted 
as we advanced. On up the street we rode not replyin to 
chance shots from the houses. We were simply ridin into a 
trap as it proved. We were passin through a place in the 
street between high gahden walls, there were many shots from 
their tops. The Mexican ahtillery gun, now seen away up the 
street, belched its smoke and shot, the air above us was filled 
with their messengers. Still on we went, breakin into a gal- 
lop ovah the stony street, and then it seemed that from every 
windah, from among trees and vines, from behind rose bush 
hedges, and stone walls, from the right, the left, there were 
gun shots. Then from out the smoke ahead of us in the 
street there come anothah storm of singin shot above 
ouahselves and horses, and too high to hit us. The com- 
pany hesited to advance. To hesitate is to be defeated. The 
company stopped. Soon we were goin back, crowded back 
down the street. The boys were now huddled up so the offi- 
cahs couldn’t straighten them out to check them. The bugle 
sounded, halt, halt. A few men tried to form but were push- 
ed out of the way by the press because the othahs failed to 
undahstand, then away weall went clatterin back down the 
stony street. Then Cappen Spillman ridin in front of Gray, 
turned his horse across the way in front of the men,|I remem- 
bah he was pushed aside, that his horse fell as the men stream- 
ed him by, that dismountin in the crowd 1 handed him Gray’s 
rein. 

“1 was tryin to coax him to mount Gray when the colt fell, 
a stream of blood gushin from his mouth. We were now 
quite alone, the men had passed us by leavin us standininthe 
smoke side the dead horse. We run to the covah of a stone 


266 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


wall and were about to pass on runnin aftah the men, when I 
see a rifle pushed out of a windah upstairs among the vines 
across the street from where we were. There was a blaze of 
fiah among the leaves and roses about the windah, and with 
a groan, Cappen Spillman sunk to the stony roadway shot 
through the neck. 

“1 noticed a great gate near where Cappen Spillman lay on 
the street, it was standin wide open. Without takin time to 
think what 1 was doin, into that gateway went the body of 
the wounded man, me not knowin, nor do 1 now know how 
it was carried or dragged, but 1 remembah it went among 
lovely flowahs beside shell walks, undah green trees among 
climbin vines and great wide leaved plants. 1 remembah 
hearin the gunshots in the street, the voices of the Mexicans 
shoutin because of their victory, that I hastily hid the body in 
a mat of vines, green leaves, and undah banks of flow- 
ahs. Then I creeped undah myself and drew them all about 
the hidin place. We were hahdly hidden from sight, when a 
crowd of Mexican citizens with ahms in their hands rushed 
by in search of us, but 1 snuggled close to the body and they 
failed to find us. My handkercher was soon tied tight about 
the bloody neck, the beatin haht tellin me life was still there. 
By that time there was the noise of movin horsemen in the 
street and the sound of a bugle as they dashed by and were 
gone before 1 could hope to crawl from the hidin place. It 
all told me ouah men were advancin. I aftahwards was told 
it was ouah men retakin lost ground, and searchin for the 
Cappen’s body, and that they passed Gray’s body by, sup- 
posin he and his man had been taken prisonahs, though the 
surgeon had said he thought the men both wounded befoah 
they were taken. 

“The fiahin ce.ased, the fightin on the street was ovah. 
Then there come a sound as of ripplin watah. 1 found, that 
as in the street we had advanced on, a stream of mountain 
watah was beside the walk where we lay. 


THE BATTLE OF MONTEREY. THE STREET FIGHT. 267 

‘Mt was a common thing in Mexico to find towns in moun- 
tain valleys with mountain watah flowin beside their streets. 
So here was a stream flowin in reach of my hand without 
leavin the sheltah of the uvah-hangin vines and flowahs, and 
to that watah, Cappen Spillman owed his life. My ahmy 
shirt was soon soaked and bound about the bleedin neck. 
The lips were kept moist and the face and hands bathed. 
Havin nothin to carry watah in, and to save removin the wet 
shirt as often as it needed soakin, 1 emptied the old ahmy 
leathah bag, untied the picchah and silvah cross, and without 
evah remembahin my promise not to part with the trust, 
threw them away undah the flowahs not knowin where. 
Why no, I nevah thought of the promise made, and it seems 
all thought of the Mexican officah's trust went dare out of 
my mind. 

“When crawlin undah the vines to the watah 1 filled the 
ole greasy leathah bag from the mountain stream gurglin by. 
From the bag, the ahmy shirt about the body's neck was kept 
soakin wet all the long, long night that followed, as I lissened 
to the faint breathin of my wounded friend, and watched the 
movin of his breast. O, that long, long night of suflferin, 
passed in that Mexican gahden with the wounded frien of 
my own dear Mistus Clarrisy Maashall! How long I wait- 
ed for that haht to stop beatin 1 couldn’t tell you, gemmel- 
men. Of cose Cappen was dyin. The American ahmy had 
been defeated. 1 was to be left all alone, far away in Mexi- 
co, Cappen John Clay Maashall and Cappen Spillman dead. 
Miss Clarrisy and all would die when they heard of his death. 
O, then what would become of the pore slave woman, Me- 
lissy, and the chillens? 

“And now that the gray colt had been killed, if the Mexi- 
cans findin me with the body of my dead Cappen didn’t kill 
me, and turned me loose on the sandy plains among the cac- 
tus and prickly pears of the mountain valleys, how could 1 
hope to evah git back to Kaintucky. But my leathah bag 


268 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


carried watah all night long all the same, and the body of my 
wounded frien was soakin wet when the mawnin light begin 
to come, the scared birds among the leaves begin to twitter 
and the great swarms of flies to gathah about the body layin 
undah the vines. 1 was breshin the flies away, andmoistenin 
the blue lips and noticin that the breast was still movin, when 
I heard a soflf voice in the gahden, and pressin my cheek still 
closetah to the body as if to hide it, soon through the vines 
and the flowahs 1 see a Mexican lady and chile comin slowly 
down the gahden walk side the flowin watahs. They were 
talkin to each othah as they come hand in hand. 

“They come nearer and nearer to my hidin place, and only 
for the vines and blooms would seem to intend walkin ovah 
us, but jess then they took seats 1 had not seen because of the 
wealth of leaves. I could almost tetch them with the tips of 
my fingahs, they were so very neah. Though almost stahv- 
ed for 1 had eaten nothin sence the company got ordahs to 
advance across the dry rivah bed to take position for a run 
into the city, and almost crazy because of Cappen’s condition, 
1 dare not move nor scarcely draw a full breath, while the 
Mexican mothah, it must be, and her chile talked in low trim- 
blin voices. 

“Cappen’s lips were gittin dry, his face paler, his breath 
seemed comin shortah, when still hopin to keephim alive, 
though it might be death in the end for both when found 
by some stragglin Mexican soldiah who would want to 
rob the bodies, and the flies havin settled in a swarm on the 
bloody cloths and face beside me, 1 breshed the flies away, 
and as they swarmed among the leaves and flowahs, and an- 
noyed the wimin talkahs, 1 took advantage of the noise 
they made to place the leathah watah bag to the ashen 
lips, the flies were settlin on apin. When from the 
wounded throat there come a long-drawn breath, followed by 
a groan. A groan that scared the blue flies away, and too, 
the wimin, for they run screamin up the pathway to the house 
in the distance, leayin the body, the returnin flies and the 
flowahs with me, alone. 


CHAPTER XXV. 

DISCOVERED BY A MOTHER AND CHILD. 

i H NOWIN we had been discovahd by mothah and 
chile 1 stepped out from the hidin place intendin to 
run aftah the woman to beg her for help and food, when 
there stood befoah me at the house where the mothah and 
chile had found protection and disappeared, a fine large gray 
haired ole man, 1 knode to be a Catholic priest, from his dress. 
The priest motioned me to stop and hisself walked rapidly 
away. 

“This left me alone again with the beautiful flowahs, the 
dyin soldiah, and the birds and flies. We had been discovahd. 
The Mexican soldiahs would soon come, for the man 1 had 
seen certainly would go for them. 1 had heard so much about 
the killin of the wounded and as 1 crawled back to my place 
side the body 1 felt ouah time, as the boys had been sayin, 
‘to be mustered out,’ had come. 

“1 had not long to wait, for while scrapin a mat of flies 
from the blood smeared face once more befoah the Mexican 
soldiahs come to shoot us and divide what we had on ouah 
bodies, I heard footsteps comin through the gahden gate, and 
knowin all was about ovah and we must soon die, 1 placed 
my ahms about the wet bloody rags to kiss the still face good 
by for Mistus Clarrisy’s sake. And was spectin to be drag- 
ged out from undah the flowahs, when, in plain ole Kaintucky 
as I evah heard come to my ears the command, ‘halt.’ 

“Laws! gemmelmen, are youall still lissenin to me.? At 
the command for the soldiahs to halt, before the Catholic 
priest who come with the men could pull back the vines and 
flowahs to show where the ladies we had frightened thought 
269 


270 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


we were hidden away, I was on my feet and among a squad 
of the Indiana Infantry boys that marched with us by the 
guns when we berried Cappen John Clay Maashall and the 
Mexican officah in the sand. Ouah ahmy had not been de- 
feated but had taken the city of Monterey, and we were 
saved, and I was to see Melissy and the chillens again. Not 
when the wah was ovah as you will see, but we were to meet 
again when she was free. The soldiahs soon had the body 
from among the vines. They laid it on a tulip bed filled 
with blooms, crushin them to the ground. The ghastly face 
was framed among the snow white tulip cups. 

“Some doctahs now come hurryin into the gahden with a 
stretchah gang close behind them, and as soon as they see the 
body one of the doctahs cried out, ‘come on men we’ve found 
it, here’s the body of the Cappen, I see him fall tryin to rally 
his men not a hundred feet from where 1 was tryin to help a 
wounded man, but for the life of me couldn’t tell what part 
of the street it all happened on.’ And so the doctah talked 
on while his ear went down to the body among the tulips. 
His check was crimson stained from tetchin it. Doctah again 
lissenin his ear close to the still breast, shook his head as 
he said: ‘Hahdly worth while wastin any time on you Cap- 
pen, its only anothah trench in the sand that’s all, seems like.’ 
A doctah openinhis saddle bags, from among the bright knives 
took out of a roll of lint, a flask, sayin, ‘if anything will help 
a Kaintuckyan when he’s bledged to go to grass, its a lill good 
ole coppah stilled.’ While one tried to open the mouth, an- 
othah from a tiny cup, the flask’s top, poured its contents, 
and with his hand tried to pass the stimulent down the throat, 
but theyall nevah once thought about me. 

“Then the crowd gathahd about the crushed tulip blooms 
now wastin their last breath on the soflf air in that lovely place 
as they were tramped down, while too, the life of the young 
soldiah that had been as sweet and lovable in its place, as had 
that of the tulips, was, like theirs, goin out. 


DISCOVERED BY A MOTHER AND CHILD 271 

'‘A chalk white, blood stained boyish lookin face half cov- 
ahd by locks of long blood clotted jet black hair stickin fast 
to the smooth cheek, was what the doctahs andsoldiahs found 
in the flowah gahden. It was the face not accounted for af- 
tah the company rallied at roll call aftah retreatin from the 
stony street. They had been searchin for it all night long af- 
tah findin the dead horse, and had been met by a priest who 
asked them to remove a black man from a lady's gahden 
where he said he was hidin. 

‘The doctahs now unwound my ole ahmy shirt all wet and 
bloody as it was from among the flies settled on the wounded 
neck, and as they carefully worked one said: ‘Here's a lac 
erated bullet wound on the side of the neck, nough to kill 
two young fellows like this if divided between them. Looks 
like the ball went way round the neck grazin all the bones in 
its course, but nevah comin out. No, the ball's in there, but 
it aint good surgery to go for it now, he's too far gone from 
shock and loss of blood to cut now. Fix the cahbolic acid 
watah quick, we'll pack him. The big arteries havn't been 
cut or he wouldn't be livin now.' Then doctah washed his 
hands clean in the runnin watah among the vines and takin a 
probe and a tin can that had been' filled with linen stripssoak- 
ed in cahbolic acid watah, he placed the strip at the mouth of 
the wound in the neck, and with the probe packed the wound 
in all its course full of the linen, wrapped the neck in a sheet 
of pure white cotton fluffy and soff, poured cahbolic acid wa- 
tah all ovah the wounded neck, soakin the white cotton wet 
as it could be, then tendahly placin a bandage ovah the soak- 
ed cotton, doctah speakin to the ashen face, that lay starin at 
him said, ‘there Cappen, weVe stopped the blood all right. 
If you live to git to a hospital and they think it worth while, 
seein there's so much for surgeons to do and so lill time to 
do it in, they'll do the rest for you.' 

“The stretchah men carefully took the body from among 
the trampled tulip cups once so white and red and yellow, but 
now trampled into the earth by the side of the flowin watah, 
and follerin the doctahs and the squad of soldiahs, passed 
from the pretty gahden on the stony street where Gappen 
Spillman fell as he was tryin to rally his men. 


CHAPTER XXVI. 

HOSPITAL COT NUMBER I63 AND COT 376. 

Hi A T the hospital the body was laid on cot 1 63. Though 
the battle had been fought only a few hours befoah, 
the wards had been made ready for the wounded in some 
long two story adobe buildins, the merchants’ goods havin 
been piled in the plazy where they were still bein gahded by 
American troops. Many of ouah wounded and the sick were 
on the cots, othahs were layin on blankets on the stone floah. 
Othahs were limpin round waitin to be cared for. While the 
groans and stifled cries we heard comin from an adjoinin 
room told the story of serious work bein performed by the 
surgeons. O, it was an awful place! 

“As 1 carefully removed the ahmy blanket from the still 
white face on I63 and thought of the waitin ones at home, 
of the death of Cappen John Clay Maashall, of Selim and his 
own brothah Gray, I felt we, too, were makin ouah very last 
camp on the bank of the rivah of life, and would soon cross 
ovah. 

“The day of ouah comin to the hospital, Kunnel M unday 
who commanded ouah rigiment, and who knode the Maash- 
alls and Spillmans at home, with a lot of his officahs stood 
about numbah I63, looked long at the silent boy’s face, and 
went away leavin him they said, to die. It was this call that 
gained for me the privilege of remainin with I63, for the 
Irish soldiah nursin the wounded had determined, ‘the nagger 
must go,’ and had ordahd me away, but the doctahs in chahge 
aftah the Kunnel’s visit, said, ‘the Cappen’s body is takin a 
heap of good room, but it wont be in the way long, so let the 
black man stay while I63 lives.’ 

272 


HOSPITAL COT NUMBER I63 AND COT 376 273 

“Aftah the doctahs had removed the ole emengency packin, 
and repacked the wound that aftahnoon, I heard one of them 
say: ‘Well, well give I63 till tomorrow evenin to begin to 
climb the hill. If he stalls and the blood should staht again 
so he cant git to the top, he will have to stay in the valley, 
thats all. We cant do no miracles, that day's past and we'll 
give his room to some othah pore fellow and not waste ouah 
time. Anyway the cullud man wont be long in the way of 
the Irish nuss.' 

“When the night had finally passed, as even long dreary 
nights spent at a cot's side in a hospital for the wounded will, 
whethah the mawnin light brings death or life, I found that 
I had been away from I63 but once, then only to git fresh 
watah to bathe the boy's lips and moisten his face now gittin 
hot; to fill my cup with coffee and beg for bread. Durin the 
night 163 had begun to move its ahms, throwin them all 
about, and to breath loudah, and an Irish nuss leanin ovah I63 
had said to me, ‘yere all the time dhrinkin coffee and atin 
hard tack and not attindin to yere bizness, yeed better be 
goin now and not loafin here, I63 will be mustered out if he's 
depindin on the likes of yeze, he will.' 

“But I fanned I63 and stayed, and when the doctah stopped 
at the cot on his mawnin rounds, he said, ‘things look some 
bettah about I63. It dont look quite so much like a stiff and 
if it continues to improve the ball must be removed this af- 
tahnoon.' There was now a chance for Cappen Spillman to 
pull his load to the top of the hill, and I was happy. 

“That aftahnoon the body was carried away to aside room, 
they removed the bandages, laid the body on its breast on a 
table there, and while I looked out of the windah at the high 
mountains and see the bishop's palace at their base still burn- 
in far away beyond the city plaza, the doctah stracted the ball, 
repacked the long deep wound, and declared ‘the Cappen now 
has a fightin chance for his life when he comes to his senses, 
less the shock of the operation is more than he can stand in 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


274 

his condition of nervous prostration, the ball havin grazed the 
right arteria lobe of the vertebra.’ And 1 was too happy for 
words to spress myself. 

“The musket ball removed, the body was laid back on I 63 
seemed to me more dead than alive. The doctahs said it was 
nervous prostration and there was doubts if they could keep 
the haht beatin, but if they could do that for a day they said 
there would be a hungry Kaintucky soldiah lookin for a mess 
wagon. The last struggle for a life was now to be made. 
That night as 1 was sittin where 1 could fan I 63 and keep the 
dry lips moisened, for that was all 1 could do for Mistus Clar- 
risy’s good frien, and was thinkin about the ole Maashall 
home and the white boy now undah the sand, the boy who 
rolled the black boy in the deep snow while mothah was cof- 
fin at the big gate, thinkin of the happy years passed with 
that white boy, and now he was gone. Remembahin now 
that Selim and Gray had been killed and how fine they looked 
to be when Mistus Clarrisy told me to take good care of them 
and fetch them back home, 1 thought of Lieutenant Spill- 
man ridin back to bid a frien farewell, and now he was to die 
and my haht sunk undah sorrows that then seemed more 
than I could bear. 1 stooped ovah to place a last kiss on the 
white cheek for all the dear friens way back in Kaintucky, 
when for the first time sence we were carried to the hospital, 
1 noticed I 63 seemed naturally sleepin. 

“Then from ovah by an open windah where lay a wound- 
ed drummah boy theyall called cot 376 , there come a faint 
wail. 376 was cryin to go home, cryin for Mary and Sistah 
Katie, for mothah. Askin them, beggin them to fill his 
cup with watah. ‘O, yes Katie, yes Mary, wont you.? Dear 
mothah, please, anothah gode splashin full of spring house 
watah. O, mothah. I’m so dry, so dry and my breast hurts 
so, hurts me so. 1 wont ask you no more, no more.’ 

“1 bowed my face on the breast of 163 . O, that minit of 
sorrow! Why gemmelmen, how could 1 help cryin.? 


HOSPITAL COT NUMBER I 63 AND COT 376 2 75 

“1 lissened and not hearin the boy’s weak voice I 
raised up and looked ovah to 376 . I noticed that 
the night air comin in at the windah rustled some locks of 
black hair on the cose straw pillow where lay a lill boy’s 
white face half hiddeh by his wavy hair, but the drumniah 
boy was still now; he had stopped beggin for a gode of watah 
from the gushin spring in the ole stone milk house down 
among the apple trees, he had. No splashin gode of watah 
was his to drain that last night on earth. He had stopped 
cryin; there was no more thirst; no more pain for the boy on 
Cut 376 ; the drummah boy was dead; he had sipped of the 
watah of life. 

“One of the soldiah nusses comin in and seein the boy was 
dead threw a blanket ovah the still fohm. There the body 
lay until away in the night, when a doctah makin his rounds 
marked 3 76 dead. The stretchah men come in, rolled the 
pore thing off the cot onto a stretchah and they toted it away. 
As they took 376 away 1 was sure 1 see i63’s face light up, 
but the light passed away. 

“Though the faint gleam soon give place to the ole blank 
stare that had made me so miserable, 1 felt sure that face had 
been lit up with the first hope of returnin light sence the 
body was dragged undah the vines in the lady’s gahden. 

“Seein this 1 hurried away to the night doctah’s room. 1 
ound the doctah in his office, his feet hiked to the top of his 
desk (some ahmy medicine boxes) where lay his books and 
some surgery tools. Doctah’s feet were among the books, 
knives and saws and piles of rolled lint. Doctah’s ole gray 
slouch hat was pulled down ovah his face. Jess below the 
hat 1 could see his pipe, the fiah gone out. Doctah was sound 
asleep. 1 was minded to wake him, when slamb went his 
feet on the stone floah, and me standin, my hat in my hand, 
doctah’s pipe rolled to my feet. While doctah was riibbin 
his eyes open 1 placed his pipe on the top of his desk boxes. 
Then as doctah see me bowin to him he put the pipe in his 


276 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

mouth again and reachin for his smokin tobacco asked me 
what I woke him for. 

“As doctah lit his pipe and the smoke begin to float above 
his desk 1 went on to tell him about 163 and of the light in 
its face and asked him to come to it. Without seemin to 
hear me atall he opened a book his heels had rested on before 
slippen off the boxes, and turnin the pages run his fingah 
down a long line of names and numbahs and said: 

“‘Your right, ole man, 374, 375, 376. Yes, here it is. Let 
me see. Yes, 376 is booked to git well if the ball can be 
stracted. It ranged way above the haht, though he’s reported 
puny and there may be heartfailure, yes there might be. An 
Illinois officah was here smokin with me today. He knows 
the boys’ fambly. He has a widowed mothah and two sis- 
tahs. Laws, how that boy beats the drum! Yes, here it is. 
They put down his company pet name as Jimmy, Drummah 
5th lllinoy Infantry, — gun shot wound, breast; slight. Laws, 
won’t his people be glad when he gets home on sick leave.^’ 

“When 1 told doctah the drummah boy from lllinoy had 
stopped beggin for Mary and Katie and Mothah for a gode 
splashin with spring watah from the ole stone spring house, 
and the stretchah men had toted his puny body away, I beg- 
ged him to go and see 163, but doctah smoked on. At last 
findin I63 on the list he read: ‘I63, Cappen Spillman, Sec- 
ond Kaintucky Cavalry, gun shot wound; mortal. That’s 
what the book says. There bein no othah writin it must be 
so, and the man must die. Anyway reports should be made 
by the regulah doctahs to this office. If the ball has been 
stracted we will hear of it, but the book says I63 is mortally 
wounded and that means he must die. That’s what the 
word mortal means.’ Then the doctah settled back in his 
chair and pulled his ole ahmy hat down ovah his eyes while 
he puffed at his pipe slower and slower and he went to sleep 
again. 

“I knode the case was closed, and feared I63 must die for 


HOSPITAL COT NUMBER 16 ) AND COT 376 277 

the doctah book said his wound was mortal. When the 
doctahs stopped at 163 the next mawnin, and made a close 
zamination, took the temperature, counted the haht beats, and 
spected the wound they eluded ‘if there is no haht sinkin, in 
one more day, the boy officah will climb the hill.’ From 
that time I 63 begin to improve, undah the doctah’s careful 
treatment he got strongah though unconscious most of the 
time. 

“The nervous prostration fast left him, and one day my 
black cheek went up side of his pale face, as he whispahd: 
Tell the boys to stop, we can hold the street.’ Then as if 
wide awake he looked in my face as he said: ‘Is that you 
Josiah, where’s Gray?’ 

“So it was, the long dreary battle for a life drew to a close 
and we won. Cappen was now moved from the wounded 
ward, to a room in anothah hospital where he was to lie alone. 
It was no longer, I 63 , but instead, there lay a young ahmy 
officah fast recovahin from a wound, and able to hear the 
story of his bein wounded almost to death, and of his recovah- 
ry. 1 told him the story of the advance up the street; of the 
loss of his horse; the death of Gray; of my hidin his body in 
the gahden among the vines, and how we had hahdly nessel- 
ed down undah the flowahs before a lot of Mexican citizens 
with guns and clubs, went runnin through the gahden, but 
passed us by; of my usin the ole ahmy leathah bag to dip 
watah from the ditch to be used on his neck, and had lost it 
and the picchahs, and the silvah cross. ‘Alas’ said the weak 
voice: ‘We have failed to dischahge ouah trust, we have lost 
all the dyin Mexican’s hand placed so trustinly in mine. I had 
thought providence had brought us to Mexico to perform 
that mission for him, to find his wife and chile, but God 
knows we would have done so could we have had ouah way. 
Pore mothah and chile, I had hoped to find you. 1 am sure 
had the Mexican ahmy won the battle and my dyin hand had 
bestowed the treasures on the Mexican officah for delivery to 


278 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

my mothah or Miss Clarrisy, the trust would have been re- 
ligiously kept.’ 

“The Cappen was so disturbed hearin of the loss, we talked 
no more for several hours, and he slept. When he again 
woke he asked me to go on with the story of the gahden 
where the ahmy bag was lost. He was all attention to my 
tellin of the comm of the woman and the girl dressed in snow 
white; of their sittin on the seat by the runnin watah and 
the tulips and flowahin vines, and of their screams as they 
run away on hearin his groan. 

“He drew me to him, and that low, weak voice in whis- 
pahd tones said: ‘You say a Mexican woman and girl come 
down the gahden walk from the house, that they were seated 
among the flowahs and were scared away by my groans. 
Did you see their faces atall.^ would you know them again.^ 
do you know if they looked like the picchahs we carried so 
long, only to loose them at last, do you.^’ 

“And so the long, dreary sick days passed by asthe wound- 
ed man grew stronger, waitin for lettahs from home. But 
O, how distressed were we as we thought of Cappen Maash- 
all’s death and of its effects on the dear folks at home. 

“It was while we were confined in that place that Cappen 
Spillman assured me that should he live to git home Melissy 
and the chillens should be freed at any cost of money, and I 
was happy once more, for Cappen was to live the physicians 
said, and we were to go home, and my own wife and chillens 
were at last to be mine in fact and not Quigleys. 1 was fan- 
nin the good frien of my wife, my chillens and myself one 
day, as the fierce sun’s rays struggled through the cotton 
windah curtains and streamed out on the bare floah of the 
hospital room, for we were yet in the care of the hospital 
commandah, when we were visited by the doctahs who had 
the patient in chahge, who aftah the wounded man had been 
nicely cared for they pronounced him strong enough to be 
moved to more cheerful quarters. 


CHAPTER XXVIl. 


EXCHANGES HOSPITAL SHRIEKS AND GROANS FOR 
SONGS OF BIRDS, BLOOMING FLOWERS 
AND GRASSY SHADES. 

^ 4 \X/ ITH that in view the doctahs talked of a vinecov- 
VV ahd house whose windahs ovahlooked the street 
beyond a high stone wall where there were trees, cool vine 
covahd porches, riinnin watah beside walks, songs of birds, 
bloomin flowahs and grassy shades, all but a few city blocks 
away from the hospital where we were at that time, belong - 
in to two Mexican Senoretahs, and in the neighborhood where 
the Kaintucky company of horse dashed up the street on 
their way to plant their flag on the city plaza, but failin, fell 
back in a wild run through lines of smokin windahs andgah- 
den walls, leavin their commandah as they had thought, killed, 
and his body and servant in the hands of the enemy. 

‘The Senoras had only consented for us to take the rooms 
as they said, ‘for the love womankind bear for the Christ. 
Only for His sake will we care for or give any shelter to the 
wounded invaders of ouah country, Mexico.’ So that, for 
the love Christ inspired in their hahts, we were to be moved 
to their house. We were to go as soon as an ambulance 
could be had for the purpose. We were to leave behind us 
the hospital; its groans; its shrieks; and I hoped the remem- 
brance of the drummah boy’s faint cry to mothah, Mary and 
Katie, and the picchah 1 had in mind of the rustlin lock of 
hair on the straw pillow, and that of the stretchah gang as 
they hurried 376 away — Vain hope. 

“We were now to rest among leafy vines, the birds, the 
flowahs. We was to go where we could quietly pass the 
279 


280 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


weeks yet to come befoah Cappen could hope to be strong 
enough to take his command in the ahmy. We were to 
sleep breathen air freighted with the tase of ripe fruits. We 
were to be wakened mawnins by the voices of birds. 

“Though we had lost what we had once accepted as a sa- 
cred trust, we were to find happiness at least for ouahselves, 
if not able to ministah to the longings of othahs, the picchas 
bein lost, for we were soon to go home. 

“The house we were to room in belonged to sistahs, who, 
ceptin a brothah, an officah in the Mexican ahmy, were the 
last of an ole fambly of citizens and soldiahs. The fathah 
had been dead for years. He fell in the battle of San Jacinto, 
Texas, undah Gineral Santa Anna tryin to crush the rebellion 
commanded by Gineral Sam Houston. The mothah had 
died many years befoah the ahmy maached up the streets of 
her native city, Monterey. 

“We were soon infohmed, as 1 have said, that a brothah of 
the mistus of the house, a soldiah, whose fambly lived in 
the city, was with his battery at the front disputin the ad- 
vance of the Americans. We were told all this in very bro- 
ken English. The Senoreuhs had nevah learned fully to 
use English, though they had traveled to New Orleans, a city 
in the United States. 

“Wc could only undahstand a word of what they said ca- 
sionally, when companied by the motions of the hands, and 
spressions of the face. From all these we soon undahstood 
the ahtillery commandah, the brothah, would soon come and 
with his battery drive us out of his home city. The Sen- 
oretahs would kindly consent for us to occupy rooms in their 
home and their gahdens until their brothah retook the city, 
not longah. 

“The sistahs would do this willingly and without bein forced 
to do so, hopin that in return, should any frien of theirs then 
servin in the Mexican ahmy find hisself as helplessas we were 
and in an enemy’s land, the good angels, and the holy moth- 


HOSPITAL SHRIEKS AND GROANS FOR SONGS OF BIRDS 281 

ah of their Lord would move the hahts of the strangah peo- 
ple whose prisonahs they were to do by them as their friens 
in Monterey would do by us. 

‘‘As OLiah food was brought to us from beyond the great 
street gate, we see but lill of the sistahs for the first weeks of 
pleasant life spent in their house, and on their shady grounds. 
They were waitin for their brothah's battery to retake the city 
and relieve them of the care of their strangah guests. 

“When Cappen was able to go into the gahden the Senor- 
etahs, togethah, or with a servant woman, would often join 
us. At sitch times we often met strangahs from out the 
gates, and soon begin to undahstand something of the Span- 
ish and Mexican talkin. 

“One day bein tiahd of walkin in the gahden about the ole 
Mexican house and tryin to talk with the Mexican workin 
wimin who only laffed at my Spanish, do the best I could, I 
remembahd 1 had nevah sence ouah comin from the hospital 
been outside the great gate in the street wall, but had set for 
days and days on the shady porch lissenin to the travel of a 
great city goin by. So one day hearin a noise as of many 
horses passin, and supposin it to be one of ouah own horse 
companies and wantin to see the American boys, I stepped 
outside the gate onto the street. It was crowded with load- 
ed pack mules driven by Mexicans. They were carryin sup- 
plies to the American ahmy camps about the city. 

“As the pack train was passin, lookin cross the street I see 
anothah high stone wall, anothah great gate. Beyond the 
wall were green trees, and through the gateway, now open, 
climbin vines and flowahs were to be seen. Seein I was bein 
watched by a bare foot, bare headed Catholic priest standin 
near the gate on the othah side of the street, I stepped inside 
and closed ouah gate, lockin it fast. 

“We had noticed the Senoretahs often went to visit the 
pretty house behind the stone wall cross the street. They 
many times had talked Mexican to us, pointin to the gahden 


282 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


and the gate ovah there, but we had nevah uhdahstood they 
wanted us to cross ovah, and paid but lill tention to what 
they were tryin to say. But at last they made us undahstand 
that the fambly livin ovah there were near relations to them; 
in fact the fambly of their soldiah brothah, whose ahtillery 
guns they had hoped would soon drive the Americans from 
their loved city. 

“We had taken but lill notice of this, as of course the able 
bodied men of the city were, or should be, with the ahmy of 
defense, so to us there was nothin strange they should have a 
brothah there. But now havin had a glance at the street be- 
yond the walls of the Senoretahs’ gahden, and seen the street 
wall of the gahden on the othah side, the vines and blooms 
through the open gateway, remembrances presented themselves 
of a stony street, and open gateway, of vines matted with 
green leaves, and blooms; of a body hastily hidden away un- 
dah their protectin folds; of a struggle for a life there in the 
heat among swarms of flies and crawlin insects; of a stretchah 
gang carryin a body away to a hospital. So the gate 1 had 
opened bein now fast shet to git rid of the priest’s gaze, 1 
fairly run to the shady porch and up the stone stairs to the 
room in the front attic of the house. The roof above was 
flat; there was a windah lookin out on a street beyond. Push- 
in the tangle of vines from its outside that almost hid it from 
view of street passers, and lookin across the street, there be- 
foah me was a gahden wall, and open gate, and lookin ovah 
the wall 1 see a gahden with its wealth of blooms, vines and 
beds offlowahs, and there, in plain sight stood the barefooted, 
bald headed, cose gowned priest, who discovahd and reported 
the black man to the soldiery, and though an enemy, because 
a Mexican, by so doin saved the life of my wounded com- 
panion. 

“It may all have been imagination, and 1 guess it was, but 
plain as 1 now see you, gemmelmen, (in my imagination,) 
^here come out of that gate as I looked a sterchah gang, some 


HOSPITAL SHRIEKS AND GROANS FOR SONGS OF BIRDS 283 

doctahs, some soldiahs commanded by an officah, a black man, 
and a body stretched on a fiel stretchah, the face covahd by 
an ole ahmy shirt. 

“And then I remembahd the wimin of the house had made 
frequent efforts to direct ouah attention to the pretty place 
across the way, its street wall and its g'^eat gateway, and had 
a glimpse of what was aftahwards told us, how when some 
American Cavalrymen durin the battle in which Monterey 
was finnally lost to the Mexicans, retreated down the street in 
front of their house, that a neighbor of theirs, a citizen, 
and not a Mexican soldiah atall, as the retreatin Ameiacans 
went by, run up the stone steps from their porch where was 
crouched many neighbors, that they might have the protec- 
tion of noncombatants and of the great stone wall in front of 
the house, and fiahd his gun from among the vines coverin 
their room windah, and then as quickly returned to the porch 
and went away with the people who had taken shelter about 
the house, fearin the Americans would, bein fiahd on from 
the house, come and destroy the buildin, and murder its in- 
mates, but happily they did not do this, and the fambly es- 
caped punishment for the man’s act which they were not atall 
responsible for, though happy to seethe United States soldiahs 
had been compelled to retreat. 

“So it was, Cappen Spillman had been shot from the win- 
dah of the very house that was at the time of which I speak, 
protectin him. But gemmelmen, the wondahful part of the 
story is, the shot that had almost taken the life of him to 
whom the dyin Mexican officah had intrusted his last offices 
in behalf of his loved ones, was directed at the bearer of the 
dead ofTicah’s trust, while pursuin, to him unknown, the 
most direct course possible, as it appears, for the final delivery 
of the contents of the ole ahmy leathah bag, and that shot, 
that was to finally bring about the consummation of our hopes, 
was to be fiahd from the dead officah’s sistah’s own windah. 

“That evenin aftah the doctahs had found fault with me 


284 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


for askin Cappen to look cross the street from the windah, a 
lettah was placed in his hand from home. 

“Soon as Cappen begun to read 1 see he was troubled, so 1 
turned away from him, and goin out on the porch lissened 
to the soff hum of insects among the bloomin vines and the 
twitter of the birds as they settled down for a night’s rest. 1 
staid longah than 1 thought to do, for while out, Cappen had 
read his lettah, and on my return was layin on his bed, the 
lettah crushed in his hand. His eyes were shet, his face that 
had begun to look like itself was as white as 1 evah see 
it in the hospital, but he was able to say to me: ‘Josiah, the 
lettah says, Mistus Clarrisy’s fathah, Kunnel Maashall, was 
found sittin in his library chair, dead.’ 


CHAPTER XXVlll. 

DEATH OF COLONEL MARSHALL. 

i i W/ hen we come home the story of his death was 
V V told us. He had received a lettah from the ahmy 
in Mexico. He had spected to hear of the promotion of his 
son, Cappen John Clay Maashall, but instead the lettah told 
of his death and buryal on the banks of the Rio Grande 
Rivah. 

“It was this way: The ole housekeepah on goin into the 
library noticed Kunnel Maashall settin in the same great chair 
he set in that Chrismas mawnin long ago when my fathah 
called to make him a Chrismas giff, and to sacrafice his eighth 
bawn son. 

“On the cahpet at his feet lay a lettah. She thought the 
Kunnel was sound asleep. He often napped in his great soff 
chair. So, she not wantin to sturb ole Mastah, tiptoed soffly 
out of the room and findin a lill black chile play in on the 
dinin room rugs with its kittie, she shet too the library doah 
and said to the chile: ‘Now sissy, yoah most done playin with 
kittie, aint you.^ So now dear, you will stand right here on 
the library doah rug, yoah good ole Mastah is jess sleepin , 
and all you chillens knows how he loves you when yoah good, 
for youall belong to him, you do, so sissy you stand right 
here by the doah and dont you run aftah no kittie, mind, or 
low any chillens to sturb the doah, do you hear me now.^’ 
And the housekeepah said, the lill chile said, ‘yessem,’ and 
stood as close to the shet doah as she could, and nevah run 
away at all, for the housekeepah watched her as she went 
about her tidyin of the dinin room, she didn’t. 

“There the lill black chile stood and stood, waitin for her 
285 


286 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


ole IWastah to wake up, and call her, and smooth out the 
kinks in her hair as he often had tried to do all her life time, 
but her Mastah nevah woke up atall, but she staid and staid. 

“When the dinnah bell rung out soffly in the pantry, the 
housekeepah bowed to Sissy to open the library doah. Then 
the housekeepah comin she see that Kunnel Maashall was 
still sleepin, so she sent the chile who now had her kittie in 
her ahms to wake Mastah and tell him dinnah was all, ready, 
and lissenin heard the chile say, ‘Mastah, yoah dinnah is all 
ready now, it is! Wont you come now Mastah? wont you? 
and see my kittie, wont you? 

“Then the lill black chile laid her own head on ole Mas- 
tah’s knee, waitin for him to wake up, but the AAastah nevah 
woke at his black chile's soff call, nor patted her head any 
more, as she knode he alters done when she woke him. Mas- 
tah jess set still while the black chile called, and kissed his 
great fat hand as it hung down to the floah. Kissed that kind 
hand, as all the chillen’s mothah’s had learned them to do, as 
she vited him to ‘come on papa, come on.’ 

“But the haht that had been so lovin and kind to all the 
black people on the place all their lives, for it was his own 
birthplace as theirs, was still in death. The pulseless hand 
had dropped an ahmy lettah to the cahpet that told of the 
killin and the buryal of his only son, John Clay Maashall; and 
the death of his young horse Selim. The lettah from home 
was a terrible shock to Cappen Spillman, and we spent the 
night weepin, for anothah life that had gone out, at the sound 
of the Mexican gun, sorrowin for the loved ones at home. 


CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE PRIEST’S MISSION. PEACE BE STILL. 

fi I T was the next forenoon while the doctah was with 
* Cappen Spillman in the shade of the porch vines, laz- 
ily smokin, and tellin him how much he sympathized with 
him because of the bad news from his home, and assurin him 
he would soon be able to move about the city streets and 
hoped to see him rejoin his rigiment befoah the wah was 
ovah, and was lightin anothah cigah, when one of the sistahs, 
much cited and talkin Spanish fast as she could, pushed her 
face through the vines and flowahs hangin about the porch 
and with frantic motions, and loud voice most scared Cap- 
pen’s sore neck to bleedin again. 

“Suthin had happened, but she couldn’t speak English nough 
to tell us what it was. But from her motions we knode there 
was trouble cross the street where her soldiah brothah’s fam- 
bly lived. She was tryin to say a Catholic priest waited to 
see us. We nevah once thought at the time about the pic- 
chahs and the silvah cross 1 dumped out of the leathah bag 
that night in the gahden. 

“While we couldn’t blot from ouah minds the recollection 
of the Mexican ofRcah dyin at his gun’s wheel, the appealin 
look on the white face as his trimbly hand handed his treas- 
urers to his enemy, why, we could only guess. We had in the 
struggle for a life, giyen up the trust as lost, satisfied, though 
they had been thrown away, all promises to defend them with 
ouah lives forgotten, we had done what we could. 

“The priest of the holy Catholic chuch we were to see, 
soon stood befoah us. 1 knode him at sight. He was the 
priest who had seen me in the gahden and who went for the 
287 


288 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


soldiahs to take us away. He was a fine, portly lookin ole 
man, of kind smilin face and with a soff low voice. He had 
on a long cose gray robe; his almost hairless head was bare 
to the sun’s rays and to wintah’s storms. Not any white 
was to be seen in all his dress ceptin his handkercher about his 
neck. His feet were bare and pressed the ground. A silvah 
cross held fast by a silvah chain, the man’s only wealth on 
earth, hung about his neck and lay on his breast. He carried 
fast to his girdle a bag for gifts for the pore. He had no 
pockets in his cloze, for he, too, was pore. The good priest 
stopped as he passed through the hangin vines and bowed low. 
As he done so the silvah cross hung out from his breast in 
full view, which, graspin he kissed and pressed to his bosom. 
Then the Senoretah and her waitin woman, the dark Mexican 
who had come with him, humbly crossed their breasts, and 
runnin their strings of beads through their fingahs, kissed each 
their cross, when the fathah sprised us all by sayin in the best 
of English: 

‘“Seniors, 1 come to you with a message from a woman in 
trouble. My mission among mankind is to the troubled. 
This mission was given me by Jesus Christ our Lord, who 
when on earth visited heaven’s troubled children sojourning 
here. He gave sight to the blind, he healed the sick, he caus- 
ed the lame and the impotent to walk. Standin on the 
mountain’s side with his friends who had besought Him, He 
called to Lazarus: ‘Lazarus, come forth,’ and straightway 
Lazarus came forth, dressed in the habiliments of the grave. 
My bretheren of the Catholic’s priesthood are Christ’s only 
representatives on earth. Like Christ, their mission among 
men, is to do good; to bind up; to heal; to feed the hungry; 
to give drink to the perishing; cheer the cast down; to con- 
fess the erring; to forgive them their sins and to raise them 
to new life. When you meet the priest of God, you are in 
the actual presence of Christ. The halo about His thome 
gashed brow, encircles His earthly representatives, the priests. 


THE PRIEST'S MISSION. PEACE BE STILL. 289 

The angels of heaven stand ever about His holy priesthood, 
within the limits of that light. But so etherial are angel's 
forms, human eyes, other than those of the anointed priests, 
cannot see them here among men. I come to you in the 
presence of those angels to-day, but in the strength Christ 
gives me, for as a mere man 1 have no strength at all. My 
flesh is as the grass of the fields and doth continually waste 
away. But in His name. Who is eternal and unchangeable, 
the same yesterday, to-day and forever. Who once observing 
how frail was the shallop and liable to sink, souls were de- 
pending on to carry them to shore, said to the storm that 
beat upon them: ‘Peace be still.' And there was a great 
calm. So now His representative stands before you. Hear 
his voice as it echoes through your hearts, saying: ‘Peace be 
still.' And in His name I command His peace to overshadow 
you. For Christ has now spoken to souls from their father's 
house wandering on earth, ‘be still, soul.' 

“‘I come to-day from children of earth who are in great 
trouble. 1 come to you who are in sore trouble; come to this 
home that shelters you though you are enemies of the coun- 
try to which it owes and pays due allegiance. The people of 
this home are, too, members of the home and family 1 now 
represent in Christ's name before you.’ 

“I had been lissenin so close to the priest I had forgotten 
all else, but when he ceased speakin, I noticed everybody was 
silent, motionless. Doctah was sittin, his hands on his breast, 
the fire on his pipe gone out, asleep, as I once found him. 
Cappen's troubled brow white as snow seemed to me, was 
smooth now and unfretted, while his thin white hands grasped 
the ahms of his cheer. His head lay back on a rest, his eyes 
were ovahrunnin with tears that trickled down his cheeks as 
he said, ‘May the dear Kaintucky firiens hear the command, 
‘Peace, be still." 

“The good fathah broke the silence by sayin, ‘My son was 
you the Captain commanding the cavalry that retreated down 


290 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

the street in front of this house, fell wounded and was con- 
cealed in a garden for one night, remaining there till discov- 
ered and sent to a hospital/ 

“Cappen Spillman seemed dazed as, lookin in the priest’s 
anxious face he said: ‘Retreated past this house? Why fathah, 
1 commanded a company and was wounded. This cullud 
man can tell you, its all a dream to me, good fathah, ceptin 
the hospital life aftah 1 recovahd consciousness.’ 

“1 then told the company the story of the horse company’s 
advance, its retreat, how Cappen fell; how he was hidden 
among the vines and flowahs, and was goin on to tell 1 
dumped the picchahs and the silvah cross out of the ole 
leathah bag to use it as a watah vessel so 1 could bathe the 
white face undah the vines, when the priest stopped me by 
say in: ‘Here is the army bag,’ and placed the greasy ole 
thing in my hands. Graspin it 1 run my hand into itspectin 
to find fassened there the things we had promised by takin 
them to carry to the ownah, forgittin 1 had thrown them 
away in the time of ouah distress, and not findin them, 1 ap- 
pealed earnestly to the priest to tell me if they too had been 
found, when his hand took from the breast of his gahments 
the silvah cross, and the picchah of the woman in white and 
the chile. 

“Cappen and me were wild with joy, for the lost treasures 
had been found. They had been found and we might yet 
be able to dischahge the dyin man’s mission imposed on us 
in a voiceless appeal we could not undahstand, but in ouah 
souls promised to perfohm. 1 was about to tell of the way 
we come in possession of the articles and to claim them for 
ouah purposes the findin of the originals, when interuptin me 
the fathah went on to tell how they had been found, and in 
doin so how strangely the mission, the ahtillery officah’s death 
had imposed, had though unknown to us, been completed, 
though the priest could not for his part know of the ahtillery 
ofRcah’s death atall up to that time. 


THE PRIEST'S MISSION. PEACE BE STILL. 291 

‘'We lissened wonderinly to the facts of the delivery we 
had made of the Mexican's trust, to his wife and chile, as told 
us by anothah. They were tike this as told by the priest: 

“The pictures found under the vines in the garden where 
had lain the body of a wounded American officer were those 
of the mother and child who were so terribly frightened by 
the groan heard issuing from the vines. The cross and the 
pictures were found by the gardener only to-day.' Aftah 
further explanation the good fathah tellin of the findin, went 
on to say: These keepsakes were the gifts of the wife to her 
husband. Captain Juan De Lavegah, who left his home with 
his battery of field artillery attached to the army commanded 
by General Aristah. We have heard of Aristah's defeat at 
PaloAlto, Texas. We know of his retreat before General 
Taylor. This city has been taken from General Ampudia. We 
are not surprised that we have heard no reports from our 
army, of De Lavegah being a prisoner, that was so, evidently 
because of the great work Incident to preparing the city for 
defense. For this reason there was no opportunity before the 
battle for the Mexican commander, if informed of the fact, 
to send word to his people that De Levegah was in the hands 
of the Americans, but this must be so, for see here, we have 
his loved treasures as proof of his captivity; evidently they 
h ad been taken from him as a prisoner. The pictures and 
our Saviour's cross in miniature, but the real cross, it is, be- 
cause consecrated by His holy church on earth, and registered 
and bound in heaven. May His holy priesthood eventually 
forgive you your sins and bring you through hell to heaven. 

“The pictures having been found to-day under the flowers 
and vines beside the waters in the Lavegah garden, and I 
knowing you had been brought here into the home of the 
absent Lavegah's sisters, and having for some weeks been 
thinking of visiting the sisters hoping to offer you, though 
enemies of my country, the love of my Master, the Christ, 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


292 

and that of His holy church, the home and only dwelling 
place of God’s ministering spirit on earth, have come now to 
ask you for imforrnation, if any you can give me of the 
wounded officer who was taken from the Lavegah garden. 

‘“1 have been encouraged to come because on going to 
the street to-day to see an army pack train pass, I noticed a 
black man standing at the gate of this house and at once rec- 
ognized him as the man I had seen in the garden the day af- 
ter the battle was fought in the street, so 1 returned to the 
De Lavegah residence to tell the woman 1 had located the 
black man seen in her garden, when she at once presented me 
with the find the gardner had made near her seat by the tulip 
bed. It is needless to say that the house was speechless with 
fear and dismay, and that as soon as possible 1 have hurried 
to you for information of the wounded man who once lay 
under the vines. 

‘“See here,’ said the priest, ‘see this true cross on which the 
Saviour died, and these faces in this picture of a loving moth- 
er and her only child. For the love of the good Shepherd 
whose sheep we are, though lost and wandering in the storms 
of sin that beset our paths in life, 1 beg you send some mes- 
sage by me to the now desolate household. O, tell me, if 
you know, where the father, the husband, is. At least where 
he was when you possessed yourselves of his property, the 
pictures and the cross. 

“1 am requested by the stricken mother to say that you 
may freely talk to me and that no questions will be 
asked as to how you came into possession of the mother’s 
gifts to her companion unless you yourselves touch on that 
subject. But, that recognizing the loved mementos as now 
not her own, nor until you are satisfied to allow her to keep 
them as her own, she is willing to pay you your price for 
them, no stain, or any unclean act, nor even any debasing 
thought must come near, be breathed on, nor hover over the 


THE PRIEST’S MISSION. PEACE BE STILL. 293 

holy cross. So, taking it as pure from your hands as you 
took it from her husband’s hand or his person as a prisoner, 
she will pay your demands in money to her full ability should 
you in your present straits need gold, or desire gain. They 
being more precious to her heart than much gold, belonging 
as they do to her loved one now in a prison camp where you 
doubtless obtained them in a way we know not of, she will 
give you gold! gold! and promise you the treatment she hopes 
a victorious enemy will accord her destitute husband, until 
Mexico’s forces can drive their country’s invaders back beyond 
her limits at the sea.’ 

“Cappen Spillman aftah thankin the fathah for the pore 
wife’s assurance of kindly care, and for herotfah of gold said; 
‘It is only natural ouah possession of the picchahs and the 
cross should be questioned until the true story of ouah pos- 
session is known, we bein but strangahs in a hostile land, but 
as 1 am not allowed to talk long at a time, my frien who con- 
cealed me undah the vines, will tell youall how we got the 
mothah’s gifts from her husband. 


CHAPTER XXX. 

A PANORAMIC VIEW. 

fi £ \ A A this the priest and the Senoretahs and their 

* V waitin wimen huddled about me and lissened to 
the story of ouah advance through Texas and what had hap- 
pened us. 1 told how the Mexican ahmy spread out their 
long lines befoah us every day as we advanced from the gulf 
shore. That a gun from a fiel battery of light ahtilery seemed 
allers to be jess there on ouah front watchin us close for a 
chance for a shot, disputin every mile we waded through the 
grass from Brazos, Gineral Taylor’s ship landin, where we 
come ashore, and on to the battle fiel of PaloAlto, I said, but 
the Mexican ahtilery commahdah handled his guns splendidly 
right in the very face of ouah advance, a rale good match for 
ouah famous Ringold, with a gun from his battery of rifled 
guns. 1 said Ringold’s gun was pitted against the Mexican 
gun from the start to the finish across the plains, the Ameri- 
cans took all the chances of a duel to silence the Mexican gun, 
at every opportunity usin ouah rigiment of horse whereevah 
they could be thrown in for that purpose, but because of the 
bravery and skill of the Mexican fast ridahs and their straight 
shots, 1 said, they failed. Laws, how the Senoretahs clapped 
their hands and laffed, cryin: ‘Muchah Wano, Mejicana,’ when 
told how we were held back, often halted for hours and kept 
dodgin the great black balls as they skipped ovah the plain 
searchin us out and so pressed us hahd, often afraid we would 
be flanked befoah help could come up, often to see the flyin 
Mexican lancahs, a cloud of them, go sweepin away around 
ouah position every horse of the thousands in their lines 
stretched to his full length as he went like the wind across 
294 


A PANORAMIC VIEW 


295 

the plains, his ridah’s lance glitterin in the sun poised for a 
chaage ready to pick a Kaintuckyan out of his saddle less he 
run. And, when 1 crouched as if almost scratched by a lance 
pint that seemed comin my way, as 1 thought of the Mexican 
bullets that cut Gray’s flesh. Scringin down as 1 heard them 
again, the priest looked sad, very sad, but the wimin clapped 
their hands with delight. It was allers so when they see the 
Kaintucky boys dash at the position of the greasers battery 
and horsemen, only on gittin there to find the brave Mexican 
gunners and lancahs had left jess in time to take all their bag- 
gage ceptin the shells we had dodged, away with them. 

“The wimin were very happy when the Mexican lancahs 
would seem to rise out of the grass and we be compelled to 
stop until ouah people come up. Then when 1 said it all beat 
the horse race on the ole Kaintucky turnpike, and the fathah 
told the Senoretahs what 1 had said, the ladies laffin would 
clap their hands again and again and cry: ‘Muchah grandah 
Mejicanahs, Muchah grandah Senior, Wano Mejaicanahs,’ 
only in turn to smoke their cigaratos, and look tiahd as the 
good priest follerin me told them how ouah line jess kept on 
goin, facin their tumblin shells and big round balls, and the 
Mexican lancahs would race away with the Kaintucky boys 
way behind them, but allers goin ahead. 

“Then as the Senoretahs and the good fathah lissened to 
each othah as the priest repeated my words, and smoked and 
cried, and prayed as they counted their beads and kissed their 
crucifix, remindahs of the Christ, as the Indiana and Kain- 
tucky troops made the night advance goin through the tan- 
gled chaparel bushes and trees to take good position as they 
thought to do for the next day, halted and lined up, 
ouah men sittin their horses there in the darkness, the en- 
emy’s musket shots flashin all the time jess away on ouah 
front, the American bugle hohn sounded a slow forward and 
the line of shadowy horsemen advanced, hahdly movin, the 
bresh was so thick. The skirmishers on foot keepin close to 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


296 

the ground almost undah the horses’ noses in their front, the 
company were all attention. Then come the blindin flash, 
the woods was all aflame. A man’s body fell, down, down a 
stone cliff, tumblin from shelf to crag, it went rollin fromce- 
dah fringed ledge to ledge again, goin down, down, down, to 
stop at the base of the cliff, mangled, torn, wedged into 
a gash in the eternal rock. Then there come the wail of the 
toll gate hounds, the growl of wolves searchin for a feast; then 
the stretchah gang went by; then that scene at the wheel of the 
Mexican ahtillery gun; then there was the face of the dying 
Mexican, his outstretched fast palsyin hand; that awful look 
of appeal from eyes in the glaze of death as the picchahs and 
the crucifix released from the ownah’sfingah grasp, by death’s 
grasp, fell into his enemy’s hand. Then drooped the battle 
flags about two bodies in the open graves; there was the 
shovelin of sand on the flag; and the farewell of the chaplain 
was heard. 

“There were woman’s sobs, and blindin tears, as the scenes 
moved by, and Cappen Spillman presented his trust to the 
priest, who as he pressed the gifts to his lips, in a husky 
voice, said: ‘And we in our ignorance, offered you gold. 
O, God forgive, we offered them gold.’ 

“‘O, how can 1 repeat the words I have heard to the strick- 
en mother and her child and tell of what 1 have here seen of 
the last gallant deeds of the dead soldiah hero.? Holy moth- 
er of Christ, beseech thy son, that he give his servant strength 
for that duty. De Lavegah, the brave, the kind and loving 
father, husband and friend, is not a prisoner of man. He is 
asleep, wrapped in his country's flag! No, not a prisoner of 
death, as an infidel would say, but released from the burden 
of the flesh, in God’s own way set free. 


CHAPTER XXX!. 

A BENEDICTION. 

i i H brave, gentle, loving wife, mother, sweet child 
Vii^ may the love of my elder brother, Jesus Christ, 
be thy perfect support and refuge in this thy time of sorrow 
and great loss. Dear sister in Christ, I may but kneel before 
thee and sob. Thy companion, dear mother, thy father, 
sweet daughter, is dead! Or prostrate before the cross on 
which her Lord died for mankind, whisper to her, no, no, 
sister, daughter of the holy church, not dead, but living in 
paradise, gone from the battlefields of earth, thanks to the 
prayers of the church, to peace eternal, in heaven.’ 

“Then as the company wiped its flowin tears away, the 
fathah speakin to Cappen Spillman, went on to say: 

‘“My son, my mission among men, as I have said, is to do 
what good 1 may be able to do for Christ’s sake, to aid men 
oppressed and burdened by the clogs of the flesh; to feed the 
hungry; to relieve the distressed; to receive the confessions 
of the penitent; to remit their sins; that, dying as to life here, 
the fact of the commission of wrong may not be a bar to the 
entrance of the soul that sinned, to heaven. To that end, I 
will remember in my prayers the soul of the American offic- 
er the heretic, who lost his life that night of battle near the 
glorious Mexican artillery gun defended by the brave Captain 
Lavegah, a child of the true church, with his own precious 
life, and whose body now wrapped in his own country’s bat- 
tle flag, the eagles of proud Mexico, keep silent ward beside 
the remains of his gallant enemy, your American command- 
er. 

“‘1 will ask that his uninformed soul be not suffered to re- 


297 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


298 

main in hell, but that as Lazarus’ body was raised by divine 
command in answer to the prayers of his sisters, without the 
taint of the grave about him they had seen dead and buried, 
your friend, the American, may be removed, from what to 
uncounted millions who have died, is a place of eternal death, 
to that of a condition of life eternal, the gift of God and now 
that Jesus has ascended this can only be done through His 
holy Catholic church left here on earth as the only way 
possible through whose intercessions he may be permitted to 
dwell in bliss eternal with the glorified part of him who while 
yet living intrusted to your keeping his mementos of a Sav- 
iour’s, and a wife’s undying love, the holy cross, and the 
pictures of the mother and his child. All of which to you 
unknown, but guided by the hand of God, were delivered to 
the dead officer’s family stained with your blood, shed in the 
dead Mexican officer’s garden near a seat set by his own hands 
as a resting place for his own. How could the things intrust- 
ed to your care have gone more direct to the desired destina- 
tion.? Ah, would you not love to think De Lavegah’s spirit 
directed your steps my sons.? 1 will instruct the stricken 
mother to prayerfully remember the soul of her husband’s 
enemy, which now, and until her prayers, supplemented by 
those of the holy priesthood on earth, are heard by the holy 
mother of the Christ, will continually hover about the graves 
in the sand as a lost spirit. Surely that bereaved mother’s 
prayers will be heard by she who still has a mother’sconstant 
love burning in her heart, though now a queen in the court 
of heaven. 

‘“Surely that wife’s prayers will be heard and registered, so 
that when the soul of the brave American shall be brought 
face to face with the book of remembrance, at that last day 
when all revilers of His own church shall be brought face to 
face with the Christ, its once stained and blotted pages shal 
be found to have been washed whiter than snow. O, Christ, 
whiter than snow!’ 


A BENEDICTION 


299 

the fathah arose to go away from us, he turned again 
as if loth to go. The Mexican wimin were now kneelin on 
the stone floah. They had stopped smokin. They were 
tearfully countin long strings of black beads taken from their 
pockets, and from about their necks. They were prayin for 
the soul of the American officah. Outstretchin his hands in 
which was held the crucifix 1 had thrown aside undah the 
flowahs, still stained with blood, the priest in solemn tones 
said: 

“‘May the faithful and loving sisters, our patron saints, 
Saints Mary and Martha of blessed memory, the friends 
of the Christ whose prayers He heard concerning 
their brother, thus for all time illustrating His own and 
His priesthood's power over hell and death, deign to 
hear our prayers. That the souls of all who have taken part 
in the drama of life and death here set before men, whether 
present now in the flesh, or absent in what we ignorantly call 
death, without any reference at all to what earth calls con- 
queror or conquered, at last, be of the happy throng, whose 
number shall be coextensive with that of mankind that 
shall gather from frozen north, and sunny southlands, to 
hail with glad acclaim the gathering of the skies as a curtain 
aside, when, instead of earth's tragedies, its sorrows, its co- 
roding cares, its disappointments, shall be presented immor- 
tallity's masterscene. O, that wonderful pageant. The con- 
gregation of all the peoples of all the planets contained in the 
system of which our earth is a part, who have loved 
God as the Father, and who have been considerate of the 
rights of their fellow men and have forgiven as they 
hoped to be forgiven, whether or not they were able to see 
in others a corresponding disposition, all these shall be there.' 


CHAPTER XXXII. 

IN FISHER SATAN’S NET. 

i i '^HE priest spent much time with the invalid in the 
* chair durin the long days followin that meetin on 
the porch. On one of his visits to us he said: ‘After the 
poor mother knew the blood found on the pictures and the 
cross was that shed by one of the commanders of the soldiers 
who killed her husband, and that her husband was lying in a 
grave beside the American officer he had so long fought with 
his gun on the plains of Texas, she refused to be comforted 
and was consumed for days and nights by brain fever, her 
life almost despaired of.’ 

“One sunny aftahnoon aftah a rainfall, the fresh air re- 
mindin us of the green fiels and sweet air we missed so much, 
now faraway, Cappen was longin to go home. He had all 
the soldierin he wanted, less the country raly wanted his ser- 
vices continued. He even talked of resignin that 1 might be 
with my fambly, and he care for his lands, and be among his 
friens. We hadn’t heard from home sence Kunnel Maashall’s 
death. The good fathah who now often visited us when his 
duties permited, was with us that day, smokin, as usual, doin 
all he could to cheer Cappen Spillman, tellin him the end of 
his captivity would soon come. And aftah contrastin the 
Cappen’s life spent in Kaintucky, with a priest’s life in Mex- 
ico, the grandest life he thought man was permited to live, 
the fathah went on to say: 

“‘But my son, because of my sins, there once was placed 
on my soul the burden of confession, and 1 must tell you, 1 
have not been a priest during all my life’s activities. As a 
young man I resisted cruelly my mother’s entreaties to dedi 
300 


IN FISHER SATAN’S NET 301 

cate my life to the holy priesthood. I am ashamed to say so 
much, though, I have by confessing as a penance removed 
my sin of infidelity far from me. As a young man in a school 
of the church near Durango, surrounded by all its holy in- 
fluence 1 dreamed not of poverty’s sufferings for Christ's sake, 
but of attaining to wealth in my own right. Of arriving at 
fame and influence by the hoarding of gold, and the ac- 
quiring of land titles as my father had done before me. 
Dreamed of the ownership of cattle and horses on Mexico’s 
mountain and hillsides, which vanities I might have attained 
to, to a vast extent, because of the wealth in mines of gold 
and silver, and the lands owned by my father, who dying left 
them to mother, and she had but one heir. My ambition 
was to far surpass my father’s accumulations of property and 
to become the richest man in Mexico, that I might command 
men, governments and women, and gild the faces of human 
existence with gold. 

‘“But afterwards, bethinking me, 1 saw that as the lineal 
heir of my father and mother, I would have enough gold 
and to spare; that beneath the eternal snows of the mountain 
ranges of my father’s estate, were unmined millions of silver 
and gold, and asked myself: ‘What more could I wish for.^^ 
Why should 1 be troubled directing property and its incomes.^^ 
What could an increase of wealth bestow on me.?’ 

“‘Following that line of reasoning, but desiring further 
education 1 immersed myself in a school of our holy church 
and thus to my mother 1 seemed for a time influenced to- 
wards the priesthood of her holy faith, the life she had in her 
piety chosen for me when 1 was yet a babe, and she accord- 
ingly rejoiced, sainted soul, as if seeing me in holy orders in 
answer to her prayers. 

“‘But not so, my son, not so, for instead of journeying 
heavenward, my feet were taking fast hold on hell. 1 had 
given up gold, or rather seeking after it, because I thought 
our fortune was sufficient for my worldly purposes. 1 now 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


302 

still passing the loving Christ by, was thirsting for fame. 1 
am ashamed even now to confess it. Thirsting for the fame 
men immortalized by infidel letters attain to among the God- 
less of earth, oh miserable and destructive life in which there 
can no rest for the souls be found. 

“‘My insane ambitions even led me to aspire to what for 
an unregenerated man with his limited powers, unaided by 
revelation, is an impossible task. Blessed be the holy mother 
of Christ who, by her good offices with a higher power, re- 
strained me from attempting to soil my country’s literature 
with my idle conceptions of what 1 then thought life to be, 
an unknowable, indefinable something beyond the possibility 
of human understanding, as seen in the animal, vegetable and 
mineral kingdoms, and this notwithstanding the Bible’s accu- 
rate account as given by inspired men of God. Thus presum- 
ing to delve into a subject truly beyond the powers of man, 
however gifted, if engaged thinking, or if living outside the 
limits of the holy priesthood, as 1 have since that time learned. 

‘“This 1 aspired to do, as 1 am now able to see, at the sacri- 
fice of my soul, as well as that of the accumulation of gold, 
though, any ideas 1 might have advanced on the subject would 
by a wise world have been understood to be the merest grop- 
ings of an unsettled mind after the unknowable, as all efforts 
of man to discover causes beyond seen effects, of what is called 
creation, ever going on about him, unless inspired of God and 
approved by his priesthood must forever be. 

“‘You see, my son, I had not as yet learned, that man not 
in the narrow way known as Christ’s appointed priesthood, 
is altogether incompetent to even consider the subject. In 
fact that man’s relations to what is called cause, is only a 
question to be considered and determined by an educated, in- 
spired class called the priesthood, and that mankind in the in- 
terest of their peace of mind, as to the unknowable, should 
contentedly leave the question there, as being their exclusive 
prerogative. 


IN FISHER SATAN'S NET 


303 

‘“Happily, my son, for the final peace of my soul, though 
a miserable doubter of all church dogmas myself, at that time, 
I did not go far enough in my infidelity along the lines of my 
insane promptings to teach others to reject the teachings of 
the faith. Thus, should I be finally absolved from my sin and 
be saved to become the least in the kingdom of heaven, my 
son, while deeply penitent now because of my waywardness 
then, my unspeakable source of joy is that it was all a base- 
less dream, incident to mortality, from which I awoke, and 
that I was not permitted to even attempt its accomplishment. 

“‘Mortality is not always accountable for its dreams, my 
son, because of its frailty, yet dreams, the unbidden visitors 
of the night, and often the guests at our mental exercises m 
the day time, may be secret messengers sent out by the strat - 
egists controlling and directing the foreign affairs of hell, 
whose company, nay whose mere presence with us may be- 
come quite impassable hillocks in a soul's pathway, save on 
the downward road, and we are known by the company we 
keep, my son. Those hell sent suggestions, any good priest, 
and there are none but the good, will tell you, are satan's fish- 
ing nets always skillfully cast in troubled waters, not elsewhere, 
unless it be in motionless waters, to enmesh self-satisfied, un- 
thinking, indolent souls. It is satan's hosts copying after 
Christ's deciples' fishing methods on the waves of Gallilee, 
like them they have become fishers of men. 

“‘My son, to illustrate my depravity and then almost lost 
condition, hear me tell how, one lenten season while satan's 
experienced fishermen were dragging hell's finest woven nets 
close at my heels, hoping to overatke my lagging footsteps, 
and had almost my soul entrapped, I saw on ancient cathe- 
dral walls, paintings, representations of the fall of man, pre- 
senting faithful copy of the consequent rejoicings and revels 
at the palace home of the lost heir of heaven. It was a pic- 
ture of a place in the very heart of the regions of the lost 
where man fallen from his old home and birthplace 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


304 

in heaven, had become a citizen of hell. To my dis- 
eased mind, man worshiped pictures, on which he could see 
the perfection of heaven and the overwhelming conditions of 
hell, were merest imaginings, by the world’s skilled artists, its 
painters, laid on canvas as paint, mere paint, to be hung on 
the buyer’s walls, for gold, much gold, and not at all the holy 
things 1 have since then learned them to be. May the holy 
mother forgive me. Those scenes hung by the priesthood, 
for the worship of men were not inspired of God, 1 then 
thought, any more than are the works of any man’s hands 
in any affair of life, inspired of any God, anywhere. As for 
instance the lurid scene 1 saw on that great landscape of the 
valley of hell, lit up by molten lava flowing in torrents, an 
inundation though aflame with some vindictive God’s wrath, 
never consuming the objects of his vengence, a flood where 
were buffeting millions of souls, supporters of standards 
of rebellion, once in heaven unfurled, who sustaining de- 
feat, were hurled from their homes, never to return, but to 
swim on and on in the molton flood. 

‘“And then its companion piece, a picture of the sunlit 
slopes of that peacefnl country, the land where is unbounded 
love, the garden of paradise, from which the lost, now in 
hell, were driven to fly away into night, because, forsooth, a 
power hitherto unknown to exist, estranged them. 

“‘They were God’s own hapless children, living aimlessly 
the centuries along believing they were born heirs to a 
crown, not the obscurity of a subject, and that therefore they 
should wear it, as a right, not a something begged for, and 
asserting the claim instead of reposing in a father’s unchange- 
able love for his offspring and heirs, they became creatures 
subject to his wrath, instead of giving each child a kingdom 
in a world of his creation, as might have been done for the 
making of them, where they might reign to the great honor 
of the Father, the Creator, they became creatures of sorrow, 
heirs to an eternity of dying without the power to die. 


IN FISHER SATAN'S NET 


305 

“That picture painted by an artist almost divine in his art, 
and by the church consecrated, was to me only one vast daub, 
when viewed from the standpoint of my then sin perverted 
reason. 

“‘As seen from that standpoint simply evidence of gross 
superstition, deathless works of art, true, but from the van- 
tage ground of enthroned reason, deceits palmed off on an ig- 
norant people. 

“‘O, foolish and perverse, I had been caught and was be- 
ing held fast in the meshes of fisher satan's finely woven net. 
So blinded was 1 because of its meshe> of evil through which 
1 was compelled to gaze at the pictures hung in that place of 
God, that not even the awful scenes of resurrection morn, 
painted there on the wall, when graves by the countryside, 
the great fashionable cemetery, the unknown trench on 
forgotten battle fields of earth, shall give up their inhabitants 
to the unrelenting hatred of the king of heaven who has wait- 
ed untold centuries of time, as time is counted on this globe, 
for the arch augel's trump to sound that he might be at last 
avenged on the grave-despoiled carcasses for some fancied 
wrong of omission or commission, while struggling with the 
devious affairs of life, were to me impossible scenes and con- 
ditions. 

‘“Scenes suggested by man's desire to rule his fellow men, 
based on knowledge of men's distempered minds, which 
though art productions rivaling even nature's work for all the 
good they could inspire men to do, or bring to men, when 
compared with a spring time smile caught by artist's brush 
and saved on canvas for children to see. 

“‘The cry of a robin red breast on a snow covered fence, 
its feathers fluffed by the winds of a bleak spring day, or a 
bit of countryside, showing the warm grays, the leaden tints, 
the sober browns, the bright reds, the staring white of a win- 
ter's evening scene, with a back ground of winter sky, flecked 
with gold scattered by the flaming course of the setting sun, 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


306 

as seen by a farmer man returning from the labor of the day 
to his home where dwells his loved ones, were daubs, mere 
daubs, laid on by painters for a price, nothing more. 

‘“From one mass of colors 1 had seen, hung beneath gothic 
arch and groined ceiling bathed in a flood of light sifted from 
aboye, once stepped out of the canvas depths what at first 
sight 1 thought a priest draped in long flowing robes of priest- 
ly gray, much pleated. 

‘“Though that priest’s gray eyes piteously rested on me as 
he passed that painted scene along, 1 was only able to see be- 
fore me a sketch in oil, only a sketch in oil colors, a copy of 
man’s conception of the world’s Christ, nothing more than 
copy. 

“‘O, mother of God, forgive my soul its sins of unbelief. 
Though born in church-educated Mexico the fish net’s meshes 
had so bedimmed my eyesight 1 could not see. 1 really could 
not see that because of the painting’s consecration at the hands 
of Rome, 1 stood before the very Christ, as 1 now believe, to 
the saving of my soul. 

“‘The garb of Gray so painted it hung in stiff folds to the 
painted ground, was stained about its hem with painted blood 
wiped from a painted imitation of a pierced human foot that 
pressed the painted sand as it moved, while from a pierced 
hand dropped down benedictions red, splotching the painted 
ground as the foot went its way, with paint, red paint, noth- 
ing more. Then that ashen face, that wealth of blood-clotted 
brown hair, that wavy beard! O, my torpid soul, and not 
one groan from thee! The painter of that face, that beard, 
for effect, had wet the cheeks, the drooping lashes of the 
eyes with tears. 

“‘The lookers on about me before those pictures as they 
pressed their lips to the stones on which they kneeled thought 
them real tears, tears shed there and then for the sins of the 
whole world and that would include even them. 

“‘There were women there garbed in rustling silks, and 


IN FISHER SATAN’S NET 


307 

linens white, and women whose shrunken forms were be- 
strewed with filthy tatters, poor bedraggled women wanting 
to be made clean once more, waiting for the Christ 
gazing at them from under his crown of painted thornes to 
heal their sores, and to purify them from the touch of men. 

‘“These crouched before that so called master piece, that 
wonderful painting as the lame, the halt, the unclean, must 
have clogged the pathway of the painting’s original while on 
His brief visit to earth in the flesh. 

“Then close beside the women were men; among women 
they were called men. 1 called them cowards all, because, 
after dragging the women down they now would ascend them- 
selves, and again be reclothed in virtue’s spotless apparel be- 
cause of prayers uttered to what 1 then called the picture on 
the wall, or because of something they themselves might do, 
to appease the wrath of their creator. 

* ‘“1 now strained my eyesight to its utmost, that 1 might 

see through the sein meshes clogged by grasses drawn with 
them from the bottom of the sea, but alas, as before, in my 
then lost condition 1 saw there on that wall the production of 
a painter’s brush, and his art, nothing more. And 1 said sup- 
posing myself free from all taint of insanity, called supersti- 
tion: ‘See the painter’s art.’ 

“‘But not so with the lookers on whose blind eyes had 
been annointed with spittle and clay touched on by the 
blood stained fingers seen grasping the strings of beads hang- 
ing to the girdle about the gray garb, the center piece in the 
church-consecrated picture on the wall. Not so to them. 

“‘For whereas, before they were blind, now they could see. 
They could now see with mortal eyes the picture of the car- 
penter’s son, of Nazareth, who laying aside his basket of tools 
peculiar to his trade, in the carpenter shop at his father’s 
house, became the center light of the universe, dimming all 
other lights into insignifiance, even as the light of the noon- 
tide sun exceeds in brilliancy a candle’s flame in cloister dark. 

“‘Ah, my son, 1 was blind to the truth that the eye aflame 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


308 

with the light of spirituality, the people's eye, saw there 
a crown of bloody thorns and garments stained with that 
shed on Calvary; a riven side, pierced hands, spike-torn feet, 
not copy, but the real ! and their hearts burned within them 
as mine own froze. While still they gazed the hand count- 
ing the strands of beads at the girdle seemed to them reach- 
ing out from the flat canvas surface and to grasp the chubby 
hand of a babe, a mere suckling babe in a cradle laid, beside 
its mother's cradle foot, and as the rich current that man de- 
pends on to wash his sins away, though their effects on others 
be left behind, unwashed, seemed to flow on down over the 
babe's pink fingers, that hand seemingly led the babe 
away — away from its place close beside a mother's heart; 
away from mother's outstretched hands, her beseeching gaze, 
as countless millions of babes have been led by that splinter • 
torn hand from millions of mothers' embrace; taken from 
breasts wet with nourishment unclaimed by their loved and 
lost. 

‘‘‘O, the millions of the once broken hearts! O, the millions 
of uncounted empty cradles in all lands in dark garrets stowed 
away to rot in the dust of decades of passing time. Stored 
away, carefully, lovingly; left as shrines of prayer through 
mother's babe's infancy^ mother's babe’s youth on past man- 
hood, womanhood, forgotten by all the world besides mother; 
unknown to all the little feet that followed that babe to moth- 
er's aching breast, but remembered by mother always as the 
birthdays of the absent one coming and going stretch away 
from the long past to her present. Remembered by mother 
as the lost one's funeral day suns rise and set, as her years 
come and go and lengthen into grizzled age, as only 
in memory she peers through the shades in an attic room 
at an empty cradle there in the webs and dust of time, 
and rejoices that the meeting day with baby, O, its still baby 
to her! draws near. O, the uncounted babes' nests the cem- 
etery walks beside, where is waiting a handful of ashes, for 
mother to come. 

“‘O, the uncounted cradles that will crumble to dust and 
be by all the world forgotten when mother dies! 


CHAPTER XXXIIl. 

A NIGHT IN A CLOISTER. 

i i i f^ROM what I have said of my school life in that 
* mountain monestery where 1 had been placed by 
a devout mother hoping to see me enter the holy priesthood, 
you will see, if 1 had any correct religions convictions at all on 
entering the monastery, 1 had sadly fallen' away from them 
while an inmate. 

‘“The source of my infidelity might have been found and 
remedied had the monks for a moment suspicioned the cause 
of this condition of spiritual affairs, to lie amomg the great 
number of students present, who had traveled in protestant 
lands and drunk deep of their deplorable infidelities, the nat- 
ural fruitage of their systems of religious education as con- 
ducted by men not controlled by the Catholic church. 

‘“At this juncture my room mate was stricken with a 
fever. He had lain unconscious for many days and nights. 
The physicians of the institution desparing of his recovery, 
had given him up to die. One dark and storm-beset night 1 
found myself deserted by companions who had lingered be- 
side the student’s sick bed. The good father in charge had 
administered the sacraments for the dying. 1 had in the per- 
formance of the duties of nurse and friend been present when 
the man of God shrived the dying boy, preparing his soul for 
eternity. This done the priest had gone away. Like myself, 
and many of his classmates, the dying boy, in life and health , 
while pursuing his studies, had been deaf to the calls of the 
church. The young men associates were not present now as 
he approached his end. We were left by them alone to meet 
man’s last enemy, death. The storm of wind and falling rain 
309 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


310 

still dashed on the outer walls of that cell room; sprays of 
water falling from between loosened stones in the wall sprink- 
led that little room and its hard couch, that boy’s death bed, 
as a mighty deluge of tears might have done had his mother 
been there. Frightened because not accustomed to the foot- 
steps of death in that room, where with our school fellows 
my dying companion and 1 had so often reveled the stormy 
nights away, 1 knelt by the form now almost inanimate, when 
his blue eyes opened wide, his arms encircled me, and as he 
gasped for breath he breathed in my waiting ear: ‘1 baitered 
offered joys of heaven, in hope of earth’s poetic laurels by it 
witheld: 

‘Mother, dear mother, your cheek is soft, so soft. 
Mother, 1 spurned your entreaties, oft, so oft. 

And on ambition’s sea, a swirling tide. 

Bade my frail untried bark 
Breast fame’s ocean wide. 

Committing to the vastty deep a fated ark 
With rhyme from out my heart ladened, to ride 
Perchance its tempestuous billows o’er. 

Trusting some friendly hand 

Might beckon my cockel shell to shore. 

Fruitage of my soul on distant strand, to land. 

With boyish glee 1 watched each bended sail 
As a white wing flee away to sea, with meadow’s breath 
From off the land, bellowing, a spicy gale 
Sifted from clover blooms fragrant leaf. 

Thro willow’s sprays and violets sweet, them beneath. 

And, as 1 looked, halowing round horizon far 

Flood of light as of burnished gold 

Gilded the further waters o’er, and each taperingspar. 

Each whitened sail the story told 

Of fleeting mariner going down to sea 

With cargo of verse dispatched by me. 

To exchange for fame, O, Christ, not Thee, not Thee. 


A NIGHT IN A CLOISTER 


311 


Then it was night, blackest night. 

A tempest wild unleashed 
From thrall, with demon’s might 
Oceans of blackest waters beached 
In agonies of frenzied fright 
At my feet. A seething, swirling tide 
Foamed with deafening roar me beside. 

As along the gale 1 cried: Tell me. 

Thou nymphs of the storm-vexed sea. 

Where now are my pearls of thought.^ 

Tints from golden sunsets, caught 
In dreamland, each glistening strand 
A gift to me from the muses hand. 

Hath oblivion’s wave engulfed, ere the goal. 

Fame was sighted, quest of my soul.^’ 

‘“Alas! my son, the dying boy’s mother’s ear was not there 
to hear his confession as he in his extremity had imagined 
her to be. His last words were caught by another ear, his 
boyish cheek pressed other cheeks than mother’s —mine own, 
and it has been one of the regrets of my life that it was so, 
though 1 faithfully conveyed his words of penitence to her 
afterwards. It was, I remember, the first dying confession 
my ears ever listened to. 

‘“As the arms relaxed from about my neck, and the scald- 
ing breath turned to vapor of frost on my cheek, there came 
to me as from a fast failing heart, pulsations of sound, I 
thought it a voice. For fear I might fail to catch the words 
of an unborn poem, as they fled from the fast cooling clay of 
earth lying there to be merged into the musical wealth of the 
immeasurable beyond, following the soul being released as it 
sped away along the dark stream that borders all earth lives, 
on whose surface our spirits released from dures here at last 
must drift, drift away, away some coming day, ‘some sweet 
day,’ or, perchance 1 might hear strains of music escaping the 
pearly gates as the spirit of my friend entered in and they 


312 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

were being closed behind an earth pilgrim returning home. 
Impelled by a power, a stranger to me at that time, but better 
understood since 1 am saved, 1 pressed my ear to the now 
cold lips of a dead man, and heard, from whence 1 knew not, 
but have since my accession to the holy priesthood learned 
the where, a sweet voice, in reply to the dying boy’s regrets 
expressed as he passed into the impenetrable mists through 
which man’s released soul must go to be with those who wait 
his coming which said: 

‘Peace, be still! Troubled one, calm thy fears. 

For, since poets have sung, in all the years. 

Here under the horizon fretted by driving storm 
The wild waves have flashed their lights along 
Seeking poetic thought, neresold or bought drifting past 
Memory’s headland as if forgotten at last. 

Since bards have sung, their crests have dashed 
Mariners fair as thine, clung to riven mast 
Of rejected verse, on friendly shore. 

Thy lost treasure bark, long years before. 

No other rescuing hand ere welcomes poetic waif 
From out critics storm into harbor safe. 

But on rock, and sandy dune, strewn, vagrant rhyme ^ 
Castaway trills from the depths upheaved in sweet chime 
Hath ever clung, while their unquenchable fires 
Of poesy, burning on, on, the wind God inspires. 

To sweep whitened sands with tempest hurtled air. 
And thus is thrummed on nature’s lyres 
Old ocean’s heart strings, unpublished poems rare, and 
there. 

Where breaks the surf on Neptune trodden strands. 
Poems rejected ever are, the music of the sands. 

Rest, angels blest, hold earth’s vagrant verse in their 
hands. 

Unsought poets thought, awaits in seraphic lands 
His coming, there to enjoy rescued tome 
Of earth’s heaven inspired thought, gathered home.’ 


A NIGHT IN A CLOISTER 


313 

“‘Then the voice, if indeed it was a voice, was hushed. I 
heard only the rain beating on the walls and roof of the clois- 
ter where my school friend had died. But 1 was not alone. 
A soft hand seemed to clasp my own hand. Ah, 1 have ever 
since then felt that saving grasp. 1 was led to an altar. 1 
kneeled, and as sweetest music, 1 thought it the music of the 
sands on heaven’s calm shores, filled my soul. 

‘“1 bowed me at that sacred alter, my school friend's inani- 
mate clay, and following the leadings of the spirit of the 
holy mother 1 promised Jesus, Him of Nazareth, her son, the 
carpenter’s boy. He who was crucified by man for the redemp- 
tion of my own soul, and that of my dead poet friend, dying 
for even the wayward school boy who had refused to follow 
him in life, who preferred the gifts of the world to that the 
buffeted Nazarine could bestow from his abject poverty, to 
rescue the soul of a friend from hell, as every soul snatched 
from the burning must be saved by sacrifices offered by other 
soul as a redeemer, for the spirit of man cannot save itself. I 
promised Him whose brow was crowned with braided thorns, 
royalty’s mock jewels, 1 would thenceforth forsake all hopes 
of the world’s honors, its emoluments, its pleasures, its 
comforts and conveniences, eyen my beloved mother; that I 
would turn away from the beauty and graces of women, re- 
garding not their smiles or their wiles, and poor, forsaken, 
hungry, if needs be, always barefooted as you now see me, 
my feet gashed by stones; perchance sick, perhaps cold, as 1 
often am with no one so poor as to notice me, save to ask me 
for bread, bread begged for Christ’s sake, 1 being but a 
beggar, with only the love of God to bestow, and myself 
hungry, homeless and a wanderer. 

‘“For all this, and for all language can include, 1 promised 
to follow the Christ whithersoever He might lead me, satis- 
fied, yes, full of joy always, if 1 might be permitted to pillow 
my head among the thorns that gashed His brow. 

“‘1 was kneeling beside the dead in that damp, cold room. 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


314 

the driving storm still beat against its walls and through the 
crevices opened by the prying fingers of time, above me, 
about me sifted the water’s spray, when there stood beside 
the dead, and also the living what 1 now know was one of the 
specially assigned angels of heaven sent for duty among the 
faithful believers of the holy Catholic church. 

‘“1 did not fully recognize the celestial visitor at the appear- 
ance because my eyesight had not been adjusted to heavenly 
visions by the touch of the spittle -moistened finger at the 
time. But immediately the room was filled with a dazzling 
light, and a voice said; ‘For as in Adam all die, so in Christ 
shall all be made alive.’ 

“‘Then my son, the vision, no, not the vision, but the real 
presence of the messenger from heaven’s court, for since 
becoming a priest I have learned we of the priesthood are 
often the subjects of their visits, that lovely face, which for 
a time bent over the dead face on the palet, faded gradually 
from my sight, and 1 was indeed alone with the dead. 

“‘And now having consecrated my soul, dedicated my 
young life and fortune of gold, lands, all of it beyond recall, 
to Him to whom my dying friend regretted he had never ad- 
dressed even a line of his poems, prefering the world’s plaud- 
its, to which he had never' attained. To any rewards bestowed 
by the head of the holy priesthood, 1 had only to cover the 
face of the dead, and in the service of the Christ and man- 
kind begin the preparation of the body for burial, the first of 
many hundreds, 1 have, since holy men consecrated me as a 
priest of God, prepared for the grave. In doing so 1 remem- 
ber my trembling hands composed the limbs, folded the now 
useless hands on that still breast; stiffened eye lids were 
smothed down over the sightless eyes, once so lovable, so 
kindly, but now expressionless and riveted on space. 

“‘My son, since that fateful night, treading as did my feet 
close beside earth’s margin, and that eternity, into which the 
soul of my school friend had been so unexpectedly called, to 


A NIGHT IN A CLOISTER 315 

enter from that vestibule of the grave — that dark, cold, cheer- 
less cloister, where 1 had intercepted a message from the spirit 
land evidently intended for the departed soul, but coming too 
late to account before its departure for the poet’s rejected 
verse as his spirit had flown. 

‘“Since that night of death, my son, 1 have known that 
man’s beautiful thoughts expressed in poetry, though rejected 
of men, and by them consigned through the waste basket to 
the billowy sea of neglect and forgetfulness, to drift away into 
unknown, unchartered latitudes above unfathomed depths. 
Are not lost, but are sought for by the pinioned messengers 
sent out by the goddesses of the muses, found, and by exper- 
ienced pilotage sailed through contrary seas to harbor safe, 
there to await the coming of the author. 

‘“My son, let us hope that all of our unprofiable thoughts, 
our infidelic thoughts may be forever submerged, sunk in the 
eddying tides flowing between that country from whence 
comes inspirations to the good, and the bleak, bold, unlit 
headlands of time, where we shall surely embark for the be- 
yond. 

“‘But, my son, there can be no permanent darkness, the 
night gives place to day in the unceasing rotations of time. 
Men once thought to extinguish the light that came into the 
world to make clear man’s pathway, and He who proclaimed 
it was laid in a new tomb cut in the stone where never had 
man been laid, only to find by his rising the tomb marks the 
utmost limit of earth's gloom and that beyond it is to be found 
perpetual light, so now why should the world of mankind 
shudder on looking into a tomb of cut stone, since Jesus the 
Christ passed through a grated door beyond chiseled rock 
shelf, to life. 

“‘Death is only an incident following existence here. Be- 
yond the stone shelf of a tomb, or a trench in a potter’s field, 
there can, logically speaking, be no recurrence of death. De- 
cay and death pertain to man’s estate here. Storms do not 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


3I6 

always rage, they have their limits. 

‘“At the command of the leader of our holy priesthood the 
waters of Gallilee were calmed. 

“‘After the night comes the day’s rosy dawn; the sun- 
shine deluges the land. So, that night of storm and physical 
death passed away, and was succeeded by the restful calm of 
a lovely day. The waters had ceased their beatings against 
those old stone cloister walls, and too, my boy friend, his 
brief life dream of fame as a poet, past, lay moored, utterly 
becalmed in what is called death, here. 

“‘My son, let us hope and believe that because of the pray- 
ers of the priesthood whose right is to bind on earth or loose 
in heaven, uttered for him, his soul, far beyond storm rocked 
cloisters of earth, found all the good he had done or thought 
to do, all his verse rejected on earth, awaiting his return to his 
own shores, where no storms sweep along o’er sea and land, 
and there is no darkness, nor any death. 


CHAPTER XXXIV. 

THE SHADOW ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 

tit A S the sun of that funeral day went down its latest 
rays fell on a new made grave, a grave far up on 
the mountain side at the limits of the regions of perpetual 
snow at the timber line, from which altitude one could view 
unobstructed the vast plains of Western Mexico stretching 
away into distance dim. And at his feet, so far below, the 
view made the onlooker dizzy, was the little pasture green, 
the stragling orchards among the stones, the faraway storm - 
worn towers, the browned gables, the ancient cloister walls, 
inside which my friend, the school boy, died. 

“‘In that pretty pointed tower seen so far below, swung 
silver tongued bell brought to its destination, the Monisterial 
buildings, from the sea shore at Mazatland on the Pacific, by 
sure footed Spanish mules along hundreds of miles of ancient 
mountain trails, from its height though deep down below the 
snow line, to sound the praises of God, among the Siera 
Madre’s steeps, to call to prayers, to toll, sweetly toll re- 
quiems for the dead. Alas, never to ring out any birth tid- 
ings, because beside the monks dwelling there while their life 
shall last, there is no life, no family nests, save that of the 
wolf, the mountain lion, or the eaglets on some beetling 
crag. Then, looking close one might see a mere speck of 
light down there in the shadows of the gorge, a stray sun- 
beam lingered at the cross of beaten gold, surmounting the 
brethren’s house of prayer. 

‘“As the toll, toll, toll of that distant cloister bell came to 
the little party of monks kneeling by that open grave, toll, 
toll, toll, floating on the crisp air at the snow line, truant 
317 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


318 

sounds from the pretty towers in the gorge below, the bare- 
headed, bare footed monks with tender hands all unused to 
toil, shoveled the granite sands of the mountain’s side upon 
the form wrapped and tied fast in coarse woven hair cloth, 
and then piled high over the spot of newly turned granite 
sand and flinty stones on the mountain’s breast, lava stones 
hastily gathered there, as was their custom to do in the burial 
of their dead, as an earnest of the ultimate incorporation into 
the world’s warm breast of all forms of earth life, including 
evanescent man. 

‘“My son, in the presence of that object lesson, all my long- 
ing ambition for life’s preferments was hidden away with the 
body, wrapped in the haircloth under that heap of lava stones, 
as dead as was it. 

'“‘Beneath that stone pile, the brethren hid away the re- 
mains of my lost school mate, to wait the coming day, when 
their elder brother, the Christ, shall bid the consecrated dead 
of that mountain’s side, together with the hosts making their 
last bivouac under every square foot of the earth’s surface, in 
all climes and places sleeping the centuries away, though the 
foot of man was never known in history to have pressed that 
particular square foot of earth, to come forth thence purified, 
and truly reflecting the image of God, my son. 

Eyes of the infidel could not have seen it, but to the sight 
of that company of God’s own servants, those priests of the 
holy Catholic church, as they went away from that burial 
scene, that spot of consecrated ground, carefully lowering 
themselves, all fastened at the girdle to the same rope step, by 
step, lest perchance hurled to their deaths down the declivity, 
wondering how they could possibly have dragged their dead 
up that steep, now feeling their foot rests with timid tread, 
along narrow ledge where evidently an unseen hand had 
pushed their great burden, the hair cloth roll along, lest they 
had fainted and fallen as they dragged it after them going up, 
their bare, bruised feet going among flint spalls and lava stones 


THE SHADOW ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE 3 19 

strewn along the precipitous way, until finally footsore, tired 
at the half hour toll, toll, toll of the cloister bell, heard again 
calling to prayer, the brethren stopped to kneel, to pray, to 
rest. 

‘‘^When on looking far up the height the way they had 
come, lowering themselves down a rope strung with monks, 
there appeared to the sight of members there, of the 
holy order of Christian brethren, lying across the now far- 
away burying ground among the stones, the shadow of a 
cross. It was only a shadow, not the substance of that 
cross itself, at whose base faithful woman once kneeled while 
men saturated a sponge with gall for Him that was athirst 
thereon, thus embittering the dregs of life's chalice from which 
deity was doomed to drain them and taste death, prepared 
from the foundation of the world. 

‘‘‘My son, mine eyes saw only the mere shadow of the true 
cross that day. The real cross on whose arms once hung sus- 
pended the hope of the world was a miraculous vision re- 
served alone for the eyes of those who had taken the vows 
imposed by the brotherhood whose houses of prayer were in the 
valley below our feel, and which they alone saw that day as 
they prayed, as it stood out as if on Calvary's top, to them 
in full view, between the mountain where we stood, and the 
setting sun at the margin of the landscape far away. 

“‘Since that time, as a monk, I have not attended the burial 
of the dead from that holy place, the dwelling of the monks, 
else mine eyes had seen for themselves, where He was lifted 
up, but, my son, you do not wonder that having seen even 
the shadow of the true cross, resting on that mountain's side, 
the very shadow of that Jesus bore to His death, for you and 
for me, my bare feet have been treading the stony mountain 
sides, and the thorny plains of Mexico seeking the lost, bear- 
ing the burdens of sinful men, if happily they might find com- 
fort for the sick, bread for the hungry, succor for the soul 
sinking in the sloughs of sin, wretchedness and death. 


320 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

‘“You do not wonder, that, forsaking the world, its rich- 
es, mine by direct inheritance, as a beggar for gifts for 
Christ’s brethren living, nay dying among the shadows in 
that lone mountain valley, 1 have visited, bare footed and 
alone, the palace and the hovel; the hospital; the prison 
house; the ruler in his office; the Indian in his wilds. That 
my bruised feet, poisened by sewer slimes have waded into 
cellars foul, climbed broken, ricketty stairways to garrets 
reeking with filth, the accompaniment of abject poverty, seek- 
ing out babes clinging to the shrinking breasts of starving 
mothers, to distribute to the needy, the perishing, the gifts 
gathered for such as they by the holy brotherhood in that 
little valley in the mountains, do you.? Seeking for thuse 
who treading among the soiled flowers of earth are pierced by 
their hidden thorns. 

‘“My son, in my interview with you to-day in behalf of 
the distressed mother and child, I am amply rewarded for my 
life of self denial and devotion to others, because 1 am doing 
good, still doing my Master’s work. 

“‘The thorns of earth that have lacerated my soul in this 
work, are blessed, because tipped with the royal blood of 
heaven, Christ’s. 

“‘O, incomprehensible act! God died! Do you under- 
stand that proposition, my son.? Can you say, that unaided, 
man can understand it.? May the cross on which he died be 
ever my burden. May its shadow, the same that was seen 
hovering over the graves on that mountain side, fall across 
the graves you made in the sands of PaloAlto. Ultimately 
may that shadow fall, where treads the footsteps into eternity 
in their goings, of all to whom you tell the story of my con- 
version to the Christian religion. Ah, my son, how soon 
to them may fall that shade!’ 


CHAPTER XXXV. 

IN GOD^S OWN WAY. 


^ k ^'^HE days and weeks went slowly by in which Cap- 
1 pen Spillman was able to walk with the priest 
across the stony street, and by means of the great gate I had 
once carried him through, enter the gahden to the seat among 
the vines and flowahs where the mothah and daughtah set as 
we lay hidden undah the green leaves. There we often met 
the dead ofRcah's haht broken wife and his chile and their 
maid, the good priest nevah absent. 

‘There, as we lissened to the song birds all about us, the 
whirr of insects, and watched the watahs ripple beside the 
broad walks, sick at haht for a sight of ouah loved ones at 
home, we told, and retold to ouah sad Mexican friens the 
story of ouah comin to Mexico Comin from Kaintucky, it 
now seems, to berry Cappen Maashall at PaloAlto beside a 
strangah in a strange land. Of that dyin strangah's message 
spoken to us in speech we did not undahstand and so could 
not repeat to them. And how as his face showed the dahk- 
nin shadows of death creepin ovah it his droopin hand had 
placed in Cappen Spillman’s hand his treasures, of course to 
be delivahd to his people waitin for him some where at his 
home, where evah that could be, we knew not. 

“We told of ridin across the great sandy plains from the 
Rio Grande rivah as we invaded Mexico; how we had seen 
the long range of mountains’ reflections in the sky, a hundred 
miles away from the city of Monterey; of crossin the rivah’s 
dry bed to sheltah from the defendahs’ shot and shell thrown 
from behind stone walls of gahdens and houses we had come 
to take from the people; then of ridin up a street of the city, 
as we were now able to see, straight from the wheel of the 
ahtillery gun at PaloAlto, stoppin by the way at the dead 
Mexican ofFicah’s own house, wounded, though not as he, to 
death, where, hunted by ouah enemies who see us entah the 
grounds, and hidden away so they failed to find us, we lost 
the treasures the dying man had intrusted to us, and loosin 
them, in God’s own way placed them in the hands of his 
people. 


321 


CHAPTER XXXVI. 

THE HIDDEN FACE. 

^ ^ evenin aftah the story had been all gone ovah 

again, we was seated by the crushed tulip bed, 
where again tulips were about to open their many cullud cups, 
aftah again bein carried through the mansion house to take a 
look at the fine ole fambly paintins on the walls, where 
we stopped long to see the splendid picchah of the man who 
fell defendm his gun, Cappen Spillman, who had not spoken 
to the Mexican Senoras of the woman who was waitin 
for him to come home, laid in the mothah's hand a small 
gold case, I had nevah seen it befoah. The lady opened its 
lids, and there flashed from out a clustah of diamonds, 
which 1 then remembahd seein in the ole Maashall home, a 
srteam of pure light, and from among them, the beamin eyes 
of that home’s young mistus. 

‘The ladies clapped their hands in glee. The good priest 
graspin Cappen’s hand, cried out, ‘Wano Senor Muchah 
Wano,’ when, Cappen Spillman returnin the greetins, said: 
‘Friens, this small picchah is but a faint shadow of the beauti- 
ful face of a frien of mine, thoughts of whom has sustained 
me durin all I have had to bear in fiel and hospital here. It 
is the face of Josiah’s young mistus. Miss Clarrisy Maashall. 
She gave it to me the night I left her and her fathah and 
mothah, to ride away to ovahtake my company on its way 
to this city of Monterey where I have been made to feel the 
object of my mission to A'lexico, though altogethah different 
from what 1 had thought it to be, dreamin as I had of glory 
as a soldiah^ was to ministah to the awful necessities of a dyin 
soldiah of my enemys' country, and to perform a sad duty to 
his lovin fambly, that of acquaintin them of his death and 
buryal, and to place in their hands their lovin gifts, has by 
me, guided by a hand we may feel in its pressure to keep us 
in the right way, but nevah see, has been by its leadins per- 
formed.’ 

“‘But where my son hid you that lovely face during the 
days in which you was only number I63 in the hospital, tell 
us pray,’ said the priest. 

“When, pressin the picchah to her lips, as the tears dimmed 
her eyes, the widowed mothah though her tongue knew no 
language we could undahstand so that she could conyey her 
meanin to us, said by her signs, ‘In his heart.’ 

322 


CHAPTER XXXVIl. 

GOD BE MERCIFUL TO ME A SINNER, 
fi £ \ A / ^ ”0"^ spent many long days wanderin through 
VV the streets and rich gahdens of the City of Mon- 
terey. Among the many places we visited and where we 
spent houahs, often daily, lookin at the ole paintins, on its 
walls, was the Cathedral the good priest now ouah fast frien 
and companion said mass in as he comforted the multitudes. 
It was a grand buildin. We were told it was centuries ole, 
and that some of the great artists of Italy and Spain commis- 
sioned by Kings of Spain, in the centuries past, had painted its 
fine panels and cahved its groups of statuary presentin to the 
worshipahs scenes in the life of Christ, glimpses of the angels 
of God befoah whom they bowed. In one ole pile of stone, 
a house of prayer ovahgrown by vines reachin the very top 
of the time-worn steeples high, we stood among crowds 
of worshipahs. There were the rich, the pore, the ragged 
vermin covahd lazaroni, many of them far past all medical 
aid with blood poisoned from its original fountain, and as 
such bequeathed to miserable generations of repulsive human 
kind. But whethah beggah, priest, fair Senortahs, or the 
ranchero from off the wide grassy plain, or the muletere 
come in from the mountains’ dark gorges, that company, 
whethah garbed in rags, creepin with vermin lollin lazily in and 
out their villanous folds of scant dress as we could see, or in 
dainty wraps bedecked with pearls held fast by chains of gold, 
all, all, knelt in one mass on the cold floah stones, as clanged 
the soldiahs’ spurs on their surface, knelt, to say, ‘God be 
meresful to me a sinnah.’ Knelt befoah a great picchah done 
by some world’s art master, so many hundred years befoah 
ouah standin there, no priest could inform us who the artist 
who painted it was or the century in which he lived. 

323 


CHAPTER XXXVljl. 

IN THE SADDLE AGAIN. 

i t \ X 7 E tried to plant ouah rigimental flag on the plaza 
VV grounds in the City of Monterey and failed 
Septembah the 23, 1846, retreatin along the stony street as 
best we could, the company, leavin their Cappenlyin wound- 
ed and as they supposed killed. 

“The month of January, 1847, had now come. The aw- 
ful hospital scenes, the restful days and weeks 1 have rapidly 
told you of had run into months in the hospital, and at the 
house of ouah good friens, where we set in the shade of 
green leaves in full view of the lofty mountain ranges and 
rugged peaks about the city, as if painted among the distant 
clouds or against the blue of the sky. 

“We had at last bidden good by to that grand scene and 
the voices of kind friens, who had encouraged the wounded 
soldiah to git well, promisin him long years of life and hap- 
piness. We had taken a last look at the shaded porch, its 
runnin vines and flowahs, and the long low room where, by 
cot 163, 1 had set for nights and days 1 have not accouted for 
to you, lissenin to 3 76 call, call for a cup of cold watah from 
mothah’s hand, and missin his voice found he was dead, and 
had seen the stretchah men tote the body of the boy away. 

“We were now in the saddle. We had caught up with 
ouah own rigiment at the City of Saltilo. We were too late 
to take part in the battle of Renconada where the Americans 
flanked the Mexicans out of their lofty mountain position, 
compellin them to retreat on Saltilo. 

“A majah of the horse rigiment had fallen in that action 
and was left in the sand among the long rows of Maguah 

324 


IN THE SADDLE AGAIN 


325 


plants at the foot of Renconadah Pass. 

“Cappen Spillman was now actin Majah of the rigiment, 
and went dare through the battle of Buenavista with his 
command, and was in the cavalry chahge that stopped the 
advance of that long line of Mexican lancahs 1 remembah 
seein as it swept down the green grassed valley stretchin from 
mountain side to mountain side, drivin the Indiana Infantry 
ahead of it as it come. 

“There were 20,000 Mexicans against 6,000 Americans on 
the fiel of Buenavista. No wondah we thought befoah the 
Kaintuckyans chahged, the Indianaers were lost. 

“Aftah the battle of Buenavista we went with Gineral 
Taylor’s ahmy through Paras to Don Manuel’s ranch far tords 
the City of Durango. We then fell back to Paras where, too, 
the people’s drinkin watah run from the mountains dare and 
deep side the streets and where on some streets on wash days 
hundreds of wimin filled the gutters with their washins, and 
where bloomin roses, millions of them, red and yallah and 
white, were the gahden fences. 

“At Paras camped on the city Plaza, ouah delayed lettahs 
caught up with us. They told of Kunnel Maashall’s bein laid 
away side a lill grave in Pisgah church yard. That the 
Maashall wagon had stopped callin at the toll gate house with 
meat and meal and buttah some months ago, far the toll gate 
man told the drivah, that because he couldn’t pay, the Quig- 
leys had taken Melissy and the chillens away to work in the 
fiels and the toll man who soon left the gate hisself because 
of drunkeness, had said, that sence then, some of the Quig- 
leys had been sold to go to Ahkihsaw, but he didn’t know 
who it was. Then Majah opened anothah lettah that also 
said, the drunken toll gate man had gone away with his wife, 
and a strangah fambly had moved in to keep the gate. They 
were the very last lettahs we got from home. Ouah rigi- 
ment was ordahd home from its camp at Paras. Gemmel- 
men, 1 nevah shall forgit how happy weall were as we stood 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


326 

in line on the plazah among the trees waitin for the bugle 
hohn to ordah the maach to begin from Mexico back to ouah 
homes in Kaintucky. Mounted on Mexican horses, ouah own 
Kaintucky flyers bein dead, the rigiment now moved to the 
rear across hot, sandy plains, through mountain passes, to 
Santa Catarina, ovah a wide stretch of foot hills past its ole 
campin places, across the fiel of Buenavista, by Renconada 
Pass to the City of Monterey so full of the scenes of ouah 
sufferings. With the first sight we had of its flat roofs and 
ole stone towers, there come to us the history of the dreadful 
past enacted inside its walls. 

“We camped on the far side of its once dry nvahbed, now 
a sheet of fast flowin watahs from the mountains beyond. 
We had not been long in camp befoah we see the good priest, 
who had so kindly assisted us in many ways while confined 
to the house of the Senoretahs, come wadin to us through the 
the shallow watahs, (His vows forbade him ridin). He had 
heard of ouah comin and had brought an invitation from the 
dead ahtillery officah’s widow to visit her home. So it was 
arranged that the company on the followin day, unless com- 
pelled to move in the meantime, would make a farewell visit 
to the kind friens who had, all unknown to us, been the ob- 
jects of ouah search from the time we laid the ahtillery offi- 
cah away undah the trailin moss until we ouahselves were 
found by them in their own gahden. 

“So it was we forded the wide stream where once we 
passed ovah dry shod to invade the city as enemies and soon 
were lined up as friends on the street in front of the home of 
the De Lavegahs where Majah Spillman fell, and 1 lost my 
fine colt and companion. Gray. 

“We were met in the gahden at the tulip bed by the widow 
her daughtah, the Senoretahs from across the way, and their 
neighbor friens. Of course there could be no music or any 
dancin there. There were too many wet eyes for merry 
makin. We had met in honah of the memories we prized 


IN THE SADDLE AGAIN 327 

of the brave men who died at the ahtillery gun. So there 
were tears, but there were also greetins, and warm hahted 
good wishes expressed. Ouah soldiah boys moved among 
the ladies and gemmelmen and the knots of priests who are 
always present where the people meet, there are so many of 
them in Mexico. 

^The company had a lunch among the trees, they were 
shown through the great house where befoah the picchah of 
the dead they laid beside the mound of sand undah the live 
oak tree, the men clanged their sabers as they stood about it 
uncovahd. We compared the picchahs given Majah Spillman 
with the tear stained faces of the originals about us, and found 
they had indeed been delivered to the ownahs, and knew ouah 
mission to Mexico had been accomplished. 

‘Then Majah Spillman, the ladies of the house who had 
discovahd him undah the vines in the gahden, follered by the 
black men, went down the long wide walk side the flowin 
watah. They stopped side a gahden seat for two. 

“The once crushed tulip bed was now a forest of silvah 
and golden sun painted cups. The gahdeners had long ago 
reset the bulbs. There was no trace among the tulips of a 
body that once lay there. I pushed back the vines and mats 
of leaves. For a minit ouah eyes saw where Cappen Spill- 
man once lay. The bugle hohn soundin ‘boots and saddles,' 
the majah walked back to the house with the ladies. 1 see 
him press a jeweled hand in his own to his lips, then he bowed 
low to a young woman in black, and with his arm through 
that of the good fathah, he come walkin down the'stonepath, 
turned at the gate, kissin his hand to the group at the house, 
as if to say good by. The kind fathah grasped my black 
hand, we swung into ouah saddles, and as we were about to 
wave a last good by to the group we had left, a servant run to 
Majah’s horse, handin him some cut flowahs for the graves of 
Palo Alto. They were carefully put away in ouah ole ahmy 
leathah bag. We took one more hasty glance at the mothah 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


328 

and chile and the good priest, and rode away, nevah to see 
them again. 

“We recrossed the rivah to camp, tindin the brigade had 
moved on leavin ordahs for us to foller. We loaded ouah 
mess wagons, took a last look at the City of Monterey in the 
distance snugglin at the mountain’s side. As 1 set my horse 
1 thought 1 heard comin to me across the rivah the low cry of 
pain from cot 376, then wheelin my horse 1 follered the 
command goin away among the prickly pears and cacti across 
the sandy plains homeward bound at last. Goin home to 
Melissy and the chillens once more, so what cared 1 for the 
long maaches to come. 

“It was almost daylight when we caught up with the brig- 
ade still pressin on, maachin all night to escape the heat of 
the sun. They were leavin an enemy’s country. They were 
to exchange the sandy desert plains of Mexico for the green 
fiels of ole Kaintucky. 


CHAPTER XXXIX. 


THE GRAVES IN THE SAND. THE SKULL OF A 
HORSE. 

it A FT AH some nights and days in the saddle, we re- 
crossed the Rio Grande rivah above the ole city of 
Matamoras, and halted near the battle fiel of PaloAlto. That 
night Majah Spillman and his servant stood by the sunken 
sand where we had lain Cappen John Clay Maashall and the 
Mexican ahtillery commandah. With ouah hands we refilled 
the pits with sand for the wolves to paw away. 

“We knelt beside the graves and takin some crushed flow- 
ahs and crisped leaves from the ole leathah ahmy bag, Majah 
picked out one fill bunch of dry leaves that was once a 
white rose and placin it on the sand above ouah Cappen’s 
breast, strewed the dried twigs and browned flowah leaves, a 
wealth of them, and ceptin the one white rose all that had 
been given us by the weepin wife and mothah, on her hus- 
band’s grave, and we had not only completed the dyin man’s, 
but also his dear wife’s trust. 

“We remained by the graves undah the tree all night. I 
seemed to five my fife ovah again. 1 saw the black and 
white boy in the snow while mothah waited in the snow at 
the gate. Then there were the boys at the windah as Lemuel 
bowed fathah away. Then Baby Clarrisy crawled out from 
among the crocus blooms. There was the grave by the oak 
tree, and Melissy and the chillens were waitin at the toll gate 
house for me to come. 

“The bugle’s call sounded as the fight of day appeared, and 
with heavy hahts we turned away from Cappen Maashall’s 
grave, mounted and hurried to camp, leavin behind us the 

329 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


330 

widowed mothah’s faded flowahs, and the songs of birds. 
Aftah breakfast the Brigade passed through Palo Alto’s battle 
tiel. We halted awhile where the Mexican once lay dead by 
the wheel of his gun. We passed on down the hill to the 
place in the thicket where Cappen John Clay Maashall’s body 
was found undah his horse, on the breast of hiss cullud ser- 
vant, and Selim’s body left for the wolves to fight oyah. 
There wedged among small trees and almost gnawed to shreds 
was the whitened skull of a horse, the top of it had been 
broken away by a shell. Gnawd, tooth scraped bones lay 
among the bushels all about, bleached by the hot sun’s rays, 
and the peltin rain. They were Selim’s picked bones. 1 
felt 1 would be happy could Gray’s bones have been there 
too. 

“With heavy hahts we passed on down the hill to the 
place in the open valley where we lined up to begin the ad- 
vance into the chaparel to support the infantry’s left. While 
we halted, the bugle sounded the retreat, and silently we 
passed on through the wood and out on the great grassy 
plain on ouah maach to the Gulf of Mexico, homeward 
bound. 


CHAPTER XL. 

HOMEWARD BOUND. THE ARKANSAW PLANTA- 
TION SCENE. 

i ii '^HE men were loaded on ships at Brazos Santiago 
I where we landed as an ahmy when goin to Mexico. 
We crossed the Gulf of Mexico to ouah own country, landin 
at New Orleans, and passed on up the Mississippi rivah, every 
day bringin us nearer home. We went up the rivah a steam 
boat load of happy, joyous men. At New Orleans the Ma- 
jah had given me money and bought nice cloze for me. 1 
had filled the pockets with presents for Melissy and the chil- 
lens. In one of the pockets tucked away to be searched for 
by lill fingahs, and found, was a bright new silvah piece of 
money. While in New Orleans 1 bored a hole through it, 
carefully folded the new cloze in an ahmy blanket that they 
might be nice and clean when 1 got to the toll gate house, and 
wore my ragged ahmy outfit on the steamboat, and so weall 
went steamin up the rivah, passin between cotton and sugah 
plantations where thousands of black slaves, men wimin and 
chillens were at work. 

“One beautiful Sunday as we run close to the shore we see 
many wimin and men choppin wood and carryin and haulin 
it to the rivah’s bank where the .steamboat men could get it. 
It was the only day the slaves were allowed to work for 
themselves. We were told that aftah payin the ownahs for 
the wood on the stump and that was slippin into the rivah as 
the banks washed away to be lost unless cut, if any money 
was left, the slaves would divide the balance between them. 
We landed at their pile to wood the boat. The wood was 
carried aboard by wimin and men alike. How happy the 
331 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


332 

pore blacks were as they sweat undah great loads of split 
wood, as it meant a few cents for them, 1 may not hope to 
tell. 

“And as 1 watched the wimin stagger undah their loads, and 
thought of my wife and babies at home waitin for me, that 
they were now on the Quigly lands at work, yet would soon 
be bought by the Maashalls, in contrast, how very happy was 
1. We backed away from that woodpile and steamed up the 
rivah, not waitin to see the pore slaves divide the silvah dol- 
lahs carried ashore in the bosses hat. 

“Before landin at the wood pile, where the wood was beln 
cut because the rivah was washin land and wood away, we 
had seen a steamboat at a landin far up the rivah. 

“As ouah boat’s bow cut into the rich black soil at the land- 
in ouah stagin was run out, and soon a long line of cotton 
bales come rollin, tumblin, end ovah end, down the black 
earth rivah bank with a darky behind each bale, and were 
soon bein stowed away on the boat. Not only was there a 
cullud man for each bale of cotton we were to take on, but it 
seemed most all the plantation hands, men, wimin and chil- 
lens, were at the rivah landin, ceptin the wood choppers we 
had left, to see the steamboats come and go. 

“A great crowd of fiel hands, lookin as if they had come 
straight from work were at the landin that Sunday, rest day. 
They were wonderin to see so many soldiah boys, and many 
years aftah that day, 1 learned they were there hopin to see 
some young white man from Kaintucky, maybe one of 
ole mastah’s youngah sons, for most of the blacks there had 
been sold to go south from Kaintucky. As the cotton 
rolled down the bank, 1 tried to go on shore, but a white 
man in chahge of the cuiliid folks, droye me back on the 
boat. 1 found their ovahseahs were there watchin them and 
me, so 1 went onto the hurricane deck of the boat, where the 
soldiahs were crowded about the pilot house. Some were 
playin cards, othahs watchin the cotton bales tumble down 


HOMEWARD BOUND. THE ARKINSAW PLANTATION SCENE 333 

the bank and roll on board, the darkies singin as they worked. 

“It seemed to me at the time the white boss at the gang- 
wayordahd me back onto the boat, 1 had seen him some- 
where, so 1 now went to the edge of the hurricane roof where 
I could look down on him as he, with a loop of rope in his 
hand was hurryin the black men if they lagged, or if they 
didn't lag, in their work in the hot sun. The blacks all be- 
longed to the plantation where the boat lay. They were 
workin, hopin somebody would pay them for their help, but 
if they were paid anything atall it must have been handed to 
the white boss who lashed them with the rope's end, for as 
soon as the last bale of cotton was rolled on, and the gang- 
planks on board, the steamboat backed away from thelandin, 
leavin the blacks on shore lookin wistfully at us on the boat. 
I heard one of ouah officahs say that sometimes the blacks 
were not paid for their work atall, the boss keepin all the 
money as his own. 

“While the cotton was still rollin, and the white niggah 
drivah was hurryin the blacks as they paddled through his 
tobacco spittle splattered on the runways where they must 
tread with bare feet, lookin at the man with the ropes end, 
his long black hair, his fierce mustaches standin out ovah his 
check shirt collah, the swarthy face and cole black eyes lookin 
out from undah a wide rimmed sloched gray hat, I was re- 
minded of the picchah of the Ahkinsaw niggah drivahs, the 
gemmelmen who looked the girl wife ovah at Aunt Polley's 
home, finally cludin it was resky to buy a mothahrin woman, 
refusin to buy her till the chile was by her side, as drawn by 
Aunt Polley for her visitahs the night of the day her washin 
kittle was tipped ovah. Not darin to give him a smell of the 
breath of my cavalry pistol for I knode it would make trou- 
ble, 1 set down side the great high chimbley and looked away 
ovah the plantation to the hemlock and pine forest beyond 
the cultivated fiels. Beyond the long rows of white cotton 
bolls ready and waitin for the pickers, were long lines of 


334 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

whitewashed negro houses standin high on stilts, and beyond 
the cullud quarters, where negroes brought from Kaintucky 
were compelled to drag out their lives, far away from home 
and friens, were swamp lands only low ovahflowed country 
until the hills were reached. Away oflf in one fiel was a 
crowd of cotton pickahs and their bosses fillin baskets and 
carts with cotton. Like the men at the boat landin they were 
hopin to be paid for the Sunday work. 

“There was still anothah gang pickin cotton, they were 
wimin. 1 have lived long nough to know that the wimin 
were makin up, pickin shortage, for the past week. They 
were new hands jess brought to the plantation and bein only 
learners, had failed to pick the stint set for them by their 
ovahseah durin the week past, and do the cookin for the men 
besides, and were workin out the account, so they could begin 
a new pickin account with the weigh boss the next day, and 
start even. 

“When Melissy come home she said the wimin were glad 
to work all day, as it saved them from a thrashin at the cot- 
ton press house for bein on the short list, and that one time, 
bein sick, she herself paid that debt and almost died. 

“The plantation was protected in high watah by levees 
thrown up all around it. Still, for fear of a break in the 
levees, every house on the place stood on wood foundations 
above high watah mark. The mansion house on the planta- 
tion stood on stilts near the boat landin. On its wide porch 
floahs was gathahd the ladies and chillen of the house. When 
the soldiahs sung, and the bugle sounded they were pleased 
and waved their flags and clapped their hands. 

“Beyond the white mansion house surrounded by orange 
trees in full bearin, went a wide grassy road between the out- 
spreadin cotton fiels. Along the road was strung a drove of 
mules, greedily nippin grass. They had been landed from the 
steamboat, jess gone down to the wood yard. There come 
to me a day, when from what was told me of that lot of 


HOMEWARD BOUND. THE ARKINSAW PLANTATION SCENE 335 

mules, 1 could have picked out the paschah where they were 
foaled and raised in this neighborhood. But what most at- 
tracted my attention was a bunch of wimin black folks hud- 
dled togethah beside the grass roadway. Some of them were 
layin stretched out on the grass, their faces covahd as though 
to shet out the sight down at the boatlandin. They too, with 
the mules, had been landed by the upcountry steamboat, and 
like the mules were bred, raised and sold to buyers for a south- 
ern market from Kaintucky. 

“Some of the wimin had babies in their ahms, then there 
were mothahs with chillen tuggin at their dress skirts. All 
were bareheaded and none wore shoes, all were ragged and 
many had great bunnels on their heads that almost hid their 
faces from the men on the boat. They were too far away 
to recognize had we knode them. 1 was told the wimin be- 
longed to a gang bein shifted from what was known as the 
upper Ahkinsaw plantation and that the men had been sent 
ahead of the gang of wimin and were at work on the place. 
One woman, very black and ole, had brought her rockin 
cheer with her. The cheer was tied up in paper and a bunnel 
was lashed on the seat. The woman was settin on top of the 
bunnel, her face hidden in her hands. She had been taken 
away from her people, 1 was told many years aftah, and was 
almost broken hahted, if sitch a thing could have been possi- 
ble among mules or slaves in that day in the south. The 
woman had in some way learned the soldiahs on the boat 
were on their way home to Kaintucky. She too, was from 
Kaintucky and was cryin to go home. 

“One woman nevah took her gaze off the steamboat. Her 
great bunnel was in the road beside her, and 1 noticed two 
chillens, a boy and girl, 1 thought they was with her. They 
seemed some taller than the chillens 1 had left in the toll gate 
Cdbin at home. As the woman and her chillens stood facin 
the rivah the herd of mules come up behind her and stopped. 
They too, were lookin at the boat. The mules come up so 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


336 

dose to the black woman that the woman, her bunnels 
and her chillens, with the mules as a background, made 
a pretty picchah. The balance of the black folks 
were beyond them. 1 stood in the crowd of singin 
soldiahs watchin the woman and her chillens and the mules 
as the steamboat backed away from the cotton landin. God 
knows while 1 wasthinkin all the time about my fambly in 
the toll gate house yard, 1 nevah dreamed that woman in 
the grassy road and the chillen beside her once belonged to 
Sqiah Quigley. As the steamboat straightened up the rivah 
to breast the current, the bells clanged, go ahead, the great 
wheels begun to turn, the bugle hohn wailed out the call 1 
heard as 1 set at table with Melissy the mawnin 1 left her for 
the wah: ‘Fall in, fall in!’ 

“The great boat now fairly undah way, was goin fast. 
There come to us from out the live oaks, and orange trees 
about the mansion house, the return echo of that bugle’s 
mawnin call of the year befoah, ‘Fall in, fall ini’ 

“The ladies on the mansion house porches were now wavin 
their farewells. Lookin up the grassy road 1 see the mules 
had turned to go away. The black wimin were pickin up 
their ragged bunnels to foller. A white man was now ap- 
proachin the woman, who as 1 had seen befoah, stood with 
her chillens in the middle of the road strainin her eyes at the 
soldiahs. The white man seemed to be urgin her to turn and 
foller the mules. Jess then there floated away from the boat, 
ovah house and fiel, that ole-time mawnin call. It sounded 
away up that grassy lane, past the cotton gin house, to the 
negro quartahs at the edge of the cypress swamps: ‘Fall in, 
fall ini’ 1 was thinkin how Melissy looked as we heard the 
silvah notes, that once told us we must part, when I see the 
woman with the two chillens up the road run with the speed 
of an antelope on a Texas plain when pursued by the wild 
yells of a thousand horsemen. 

“She ran away from her chillens, her bunnels, the white 


HOMEWARD BOUND. THE ARKINSAW PLANTATION SCENE 337 

man. Away down tords the rivah landin she sped, the white 
man fairly distanced in the race. Past the mansion house the 
woman and the white man run; past the orange trees they 
went; up the high levee embankment at the rivah’s edge the 
woman leaped. She stood for a minit, her hands stretched 
tords the fast movin boat and high heaven, then fell on her 
face, and as the white man who had now caught up with the 
black woman lifted her to her bended knees, the steamboat 
roundin a pint of wood on the rivah bank and passed out of 
the woman’s sight. A niggah had tried to escape from an 
Ahkinsaw planter and had been caught and would be whipped, 
that was all. 

"In time 1 come to know we had left the Ahkinsaw plan- 
tation my own wife had once come so near bein sent to by 
the niggah drivahs as told by Aunt Polley. 

“We soon forgot the agonized black woman we had seen 
fall to the ground on the levee top as she implored heaven 
for help as we left the cotton landin, and with evah increasin 
happiness as we neared ouah homes. The boat went on up 
the Mississippi rivah and the Ohio to Louisville. 


CHAPTER XLI. 

HARRODSBURG WELCOMES THE SOLDIER BOYS, 
i i A T Louisville we were again in the state of Kaintucky 
We remained in Louisville until discahged, when 
the companies, nevah loosin a minit, hurried on home to 
waitin friens. 

“At Louisville ouah company, now citizens, took steam- 
boat, the Blue Wing, and passin Carleton, Kaintucky, went 
on up the Kaintucky rivah to Monday's Landin where we 
were met by the people who carried us to Harrodsburg where 
the white folks welcomed us home. 1 was now in the Maash- 
all fambly's county town near which they had lived for the 
life time of all their people, but there wasn’t a white man in 
the crowds that had come to shake hands with the soldiah 
boys that knode me. There was nobody to welcome me, 
and no one to tell me about the Maashalls or Melissy and 
the chillens. The soldiahs were bein toasted, kissed and car- 
ried away by mothahs, fathahs, and sweethahts, but there 
was no one to say howdy to me, and when 1 asked some pore 
whites standin round if they had seen any of the Quigley’s, 
used to be Jackson’s black people in town, they only stared 
at me the more. But aftah a while one pore white heard 
what 1 had to say and lookin me all ovah, for 1 had all my 
new cloze on, of cose, and the nice presents for the chillens 
were still stored away in the pockets of them, he said: 

‘“What you mean talkin bout Quigley niggahs, you dont 
live heah do you, or you’d know there are no Quigley nor 
any Jackson cullud folks left in this country? 

“As Majah was with the ladies and gemmelmen in the hotel, 
and as no one knode me, 1 now determined to leave town at 
338 


HARRODSBURG WELCOMES THE SOLDIER BOYS 339 

once, but I remembahd I was in Kaintucky where a black man 
must have a pass to travel on the turnpike roads, so 1 went into 
the hotel where the citizens and soldiahs were drinkin to each 
othahs good health, hopin to see the Majah to ask for a pass, 
when a white man said to me as I stood crowded as close in a 
corner of the room as 1 could git so as to be out of the way 
of the whites: ‘Uncle, you know mighty well there's more 
room outside the house for a chimbley than inside the house. 
Now you trapse mighty quick! If any white man wants to 
see you where gemmelmen are drinkin, he'll send for you sah, 
you hear me?' So I was bleedged to go out of the house 
without seein the Majah and hahdly stepped onto the side- 
walk when a pore white takin me by the shouldah said: 'Come 
now black boy, move on, keep on movin, and git out of the 
way of the white folks. Git out onto the street you're 
scrougin the sidewalks, go on sah.' So 1 went on, steppin 
onto the street that was about as scrouged as was the stone 
walk. 1 had hahdly taken a step on the street when the clat- 
ter of horse feet caused me to step back on the side walk 
only to be shoved back into the street guttah again by the 
white man, in time for the horse to strike me as he stopped, 
when sprawlin onto the walk I went, to be reminded again 
by the white man to stay in thestreet. Regaininmy feet, the 
gemmelman who rode the horse placed his bridle reins in my 
hand. ‘Here boy' said he, ‘hold my horse in the locust tree 
shade. You’re lissenin, are you, uncle?' And he passed on 
into the bar room where the soldiah boys were bein welcomed 
home. I had been driven from the bar room. 

“The constable had driven me from the stone walk to the 
street. The gemmelman's horse had knocked me back sprawl- 
in onto the walk again only to be helped off once more by 
the constable, and I now found myself standin in the street 
guttah as a hitchin post, and there I stood. Stood while the 
horse pawed the earth impatient to be goin. 1 stood holdin 
that horse while the country people passed by without noticin 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


340 

me atall. There were many faces 1 had seen befoah and knew, 
but nobody knode me, and I dasn’t speak till spoken to. 1 
learned that much befoah goin to Mexico, and ahmy regula- 
tions kept it in mind them days. 

“Look where 1 would 1 couldn’t see Melissy nor any of the 
Quigley cullud folks. While lookin about me a drunken 
white man reeled against me fallin at the horse’s feet. Befoah 
1 could drag the man from the guttah into the shade of a near 
by tree, to keep the horse from trampin on him 1 see it was 
the tollgate keepah, the fathah of my lost Genie. 

“He was past talkin, so 1 hitched the horse to a tree, 
then 1 moved my frien to safety and a shade, snugglin him 
the best 1 could there on the street, layin his hat ovah the face 
Genie used to kiss when, thinkin the horse safely hitched, 
and the man sound asleep, 1 went away. 

“As 1 went, 1 stopped at a grocery stoah windah and was 
lookin in at the many nice things 1 thought Melissy would 
like to have, and that 1 would buy if 1 had the money, when 
a white man, smellin like a cawn whiskey mill, took hold of 
my ahm. As he held me fast he looked at my shiny shoes 
and my new cloze and said: ‘Whose boy are you,sah.!’’ And 
not waitin for me to tell, went on to say: ‘What you jukin 
round the stoah windahs for sah.^* You see you’re watched. 
Them’s mighty nice kiyerins you’yegot on, 1 reckon. Of cose 
there’s a black pass in eyery one of the pockets. 0, 1 see by 
youah face you havn’t got no pass. See here, what you let 
the gemmelman’s ridah go dashin down the street away from 
a drunk for, sah.? Didn’t he tell you to hold the horse while 
he took a drink with the boys, didn’t he.? Of cose he did! 
You tied the young horse to a tree, the drunk woke up for 
anothah drink and scared him till he broke his bridle rein, and 
through your carlessness the gemmelman will haye to walk 
home afoot, hisself, if he’s able to walk by hisself, when he’s 
through drinkin with the soldiahs, he will. 

“‘Come, shell the pass,’ said he. I tried to tell the pore 


HARRODSBURG WELCOMES THE SOLDIER BOYS 341 

white about my comin home from Mexico with the Girard, 
Mercer and Crab Orchard boys, and that I was waitin 
for a pass so I could go home to the Quigleys, and that 1 was 
a Maashall and married a Quigley, when pushin me along 
ahead of him, he went on to say: ‘That’s a good story to 
tell, but no Quigley cullud man evah dressed like you do. 
They were the raggedest lot in the country and are now, if 
there’s any left in it this side of Ahkinsaw, ole man, so you 
go right along to the jedge’s cote. He’ll take mighty good 
care of you, and you can tell him all about the Mexican wah, 
and where you got the good coat and hat and why you’re 
loose with no pass.’ 

“So up the street we went to the calaboose cote room. 
The constable pushed me in befoah the sqiah and held me fast 
as though he had had great trouble to run me in. ‘Come, 
stand up here, you black rascal, you’ve been loafin around 
long nutf tryin to make white folks believe you’s a soldiah,’ 
said he. There 1 stood befoah the Jedge, a white haired ole 
man, 1 had seen many times when in Harrodsburg on errands 
to the stores, but if he had evah seen me he failed to know 
me as 1 stood a prisonah befoah his bar of jestice. 

“When we went in the cote room the Jedge was sittin on 
his high stool all doubled up, writin in a book on his desk. 
When the constable took off his hat and bowed befoah his 
honah, his honah said, ‘Howdy,’ and openin the cornahof his 
mouth and inclinin his head to one side, a stream of yallah 
tobacco juice run down onto a stool leg and out on the floah 
into a puddle below his hiked up feet. Then the Jedge un- 
coiled hisself and puttin one of his hands to the small of his 
back aftahwhile straightened hisself up, stuck a quill pen be- 
hind his ear, shoved his glasses way back among his gray 
hairs, and look in at the constable without noticin me atall, 
said to him. ‘The cote hasn’t time to try no niggah cases to- 
day as it wants to go down to the bodin house and sorter 
welcome the soldiah boys home, we sholy owe it to them to 


342 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

honah them for their services to the commonwealth of Kain- 
tucky at PaloAlto and Monterey where they shed their blood, 
we do. So you kin jess open the yahd doah and turn the 
boy loose among the reglah bordahs and the Ahkinsaw ship- 
ment thats in there waitin to be made up, and weel sorter 
look ovah his case aftah the celebration is done past, and that 
wilt be tomorrow or next day and anyway this week some- 
time.’ 

“The constable now laid hold on me and was about to car- 
ry me to the big yahd doah when the Jedge noticin my clean 
new cloze stopped him, and pullin his specks down ovah his 
eyes as he looked at me lowed he would have a few minits 
to hear the case in befoah he went to the celebration; any- 
way he said: ‘The cote would like mighty well to know 
suthin more about a cullud boy who certainly is as well dressed 
as the Jedge on the bench.’ So he commanded the prisonah 
at the bar to stand up and ansah his questions. All this time 
the cote was settin on the high stool by the writin desk above 
the wooden benches and the wood box spittoons and the pud- 
dles layin around on the floah in easy reach of any one spit- 
tin from the benches. 

“The cote now turned its face to the prisonah at the bar, 
and said in a commandin tone: ‘Whose boy are you.?’ I was 
goin to tell the Jedge 1 was a Maashall, when the constable 
told the Jedge 1 had been talkin to him about the Quigleys 
and claimin 1 was jess home from the wah. Then the cote 
dipped its pen in ink and wrote all the constable had told it, 
and again lookin at me said: ‘Go on now.’ 

“So when the cote had time to hear me I told my story, 
and spressed myself as sorry 1 failed to tie the gemmelman’s 
ridin horse tight to the locust tree, that 1 was waitin to see 
Majah Spillman who would pass me home to the Quigley, 
once Jackson, toll gate. 1 promised the Jedge if he would 
only let me go that time, 1 would come back befoah leavin 
town and show him the Majah’s pass, and that 1 would then 


HARRODSBURG WELCOMES THE SOLDIER BOYS 343 

go home, or if he would send the constable with me, we 
would find many soldiah boys who would sign for me. By 
that time the room was filled with pore whites cawn whiskey 
tobacco breaths, and, the benches seated three citizens to each 
spit box. 

“Then the Jedge took a law book from his desk, and while 
the men on the benches talked about the soldiah boys, and 
how they whipped the Mexicans at PaloAlto, all lowin they 
would go to the very next wah Kaintucky had, their own 
selves, the Jedge read in the law book. He then said to 
the constable, that there were a good many regulah bodahs 
in the calaboose and that he would be glad to let me go, but 
in readin the niggah laws ovah he found the word ‘shall’ had 
been used stid of ‘may’ so that the law read: ‘The Jedge 
havin jurisdiction shall cause the body of the cullud man, etc., 
etc.’ A pore white then handed the cote his plug of long black 
honey dew. The cote carefully wiped the teeth gashes on the 
plug on his coat cuff, picked out a place on the long twisted 
plug that seemed to be cleaner than the rest of the gnawed 
places, and bitin a mouthful, aftah pickin a stem from its 
teeth, spit ovah the heads of the men on the benches below, 
dare ovah them, spatterin as it flew on a cracked wintah stove 
that stood waitin for frosty weathah to come to wahm up its 
broken sides once more. In the cold weathah it was a wahm 
spit box, in the hot weathah of summah time, a cold one, 
and sides, was the place where the Jedge set his hat when 
wahm weathah come and it is presidin. Aftah splatterin the 
stove all about the ole silk hat, seemingly in deep thought, 
the Jedge turned to the prisonah at the bar still held fast by 
the constable, and said: 

“‘That’s mighty fine chawin.’ Then pursin his lips and 
drawin his wrinkles all down in a roll ovah his eyes the cote 
went on to say: ‘It pears to the cote you’ve done tole the 
truth as nigh as a cullud man kin do, or mighty nigh the 
truth, and the cote thinks its a powful good jedge of cullud 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


344 

men, deedy it does. The cote reckons you’ve been to wah, 
long with the soldiah boys all right, it does, and that the good 
cloze were bought in New Orleans. Ceptin the white man’s 
evidence, and the fact no black man kin give evidence to re- 
but a white man’s evidence, the cote would lean your way 
powful hahd in this case uncle, deed it would, and if a cullud 
man was lowed to walk the roads without no white man’s 
pass the cote would start you trapsein down the pike road 
mighty quick, it would. But it can’t take a black man’s ev- 
idence atall, ceptin where there’s no white man in the case. 

“In this case, howevah, the whites bring the blacks into cote, 
so all 1 kin do is to lissen to the white man. The cote re- 
membahs, too, that speakin of cullud men in the hands of 
Kaintucky Jedges, the law allers says ‘shall,’ it nevah says 
‘may.’ So it has only to see that the law is foced in this 
case. The constable will see the boy is cared for, and turned 
ovah to his mastah when he comes for him.’ 

“Then the Jedge reached to a big key hangin on a nail side 
his desk, the constable took the key from his hand, the big 
doah openin into the calaboose yahd soon swung wide, 
and was slammed behind the prisonah. 

“I had come home from the wah, hopin to meet my wife 
and babies, only to find myself standin in the dusty, dirty 
yahd of the town slave pen. It was the place where the bad 
blacks of town could be sent to be whipped at small cost to 
the state and no cost to the ownah, and where men and wimin 
bought for shipment to mahket could be fed and safely kept 
while a drove of them was bein made up. And I remem - 
bahd in my trouble that it was the place the Ahkinsaw buy- 
ers would have taken my wife to, only they were afraid to 
buy a mothah till the chile was bawn. 

“1 thank God, gemmelmen, the slave days of Kaintucky 
are past and gone. The fair cheeks of her white daughtahs 
would mantle with shame to-day were it possible such horrid 
places could now exist in the haht of her beautiful country 


HARRODSBURG WELCOMES THE SOLDIER BOYS 345 

villages. Standin there 1 soon see I was among as dirty and 
lousy a set of mortal animals as 1 had often shuddered to see 
gropin in the dust about ahmy camps in Mexico, where tot- 
terin ole men, stahved wimin in rags, long, bony-handed ole- 
faced chillens searched the dust for chance crumbs of bread, 
if only a crumb, their cheeks, ears, noses, and often their eyes 
eaten away by the teeth of loathsome disease. Pore, halt, 
blind, festerin creatures, God’s own creatures, but men’s pore 
slaves, the burden bearers of proud Catholic, Christian Mexi- 
co. 

“There befoah me, huddled all about me, smeared with the 
grime and filth of the prison pen, crouched on the ground, 
leanin against the walls and pressin me, now the center of a 
crowd about, were slaves of the proud ole Commonwealth of 
Christian Kaintucky. May the good Lawd forgit her social 
and political history and her religion, up to Mistah Lincoln’s 
emancipation day. 

“Though 1 was bawn on the ole Maashall place and had 
lived in the Pisgah neighborhood all my life, 1 didn’t know 
one of the blacks that scrouged around me and come aftah 
me as 1 backed along the stone wall tryin to git back to the 
calaboose doah 1 had been pushed through. The herd had 
follered me close. 1 could go no further. The big doah was 
closed. 1 was the centah of the dirty, scratchin, bad smellin 
crowd. One half white woman, now put her ahms round 
my neck sayin: ‘Why, my own brothah, how long it has 
been sence we met. And so you come back home to see 
youah own sweet sistah, didn’t you.?’ W’hile the othah wimin 
pressed us close and yelled with delight, sistah laid her 
head on the breast of my nice clean coat as she cried in her 
happiness, because of ouah meetin again, and my coat front 
was stained as had been the stove the Jedge’s hat set on. 
Sistah, like the Jedge, chewed tobacco. The wimin were my 
sistahs, the men brothahs. Their dirty hands went everywhere 
on me. One man, most naked hisself, tried to trade it 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


346 

for my doze and but for a yallah man who knocked him 
down, and took my purse hisself he would have made the 
exchange of property. 

“Pressed to the wall by the crowd, a strange hand went 
into each of my pockets, when into the dust 1 fell, crushed 
beneath the weight of men and wimin who piled on top of 
me. They held me fast and at once begun to strip my body. 

“One took my nice new hat; anothah tore my red 
necktie from my throat; a man at each trouser leg pulled his 
best until the suspenders broke and then they fought for pos- 
session. My coat and my vest with the bright brass buttons 
were gone. The wimin fought to see who should have the 
chillens’ presents, and worse than all besides, they had some- 
where the smooth silvah money with the string run through. 
The naked man had about exchanged with me. Then the 
cullud men and wimin begin to tumble ovah me as I lay near 
the stone wall. Then there were white men’s voices in loud 
commands and deep curses. 1 was picked up bodily and car- 
ried through the calbaoose doah and dumped on the cote 
room floah, among the spittoons, and while almost swimmin 
in the tobacco pools, 1 was grabbed and jirked thi> way, then 
that way. The soldiah boys had whipped the niggahs in the 
jail yahd pen, and carried me into the cote room, where the 
constables were tryin to take me away from the soldiahs to 
put me back in the jail at the command of the Jedge. I now 
found myself settin on the floah amongjthe topsyturvy benches, 
the spitboxes, and the ovahturned and broken stove pieces 
layin about the Jedge’s ole silk hat. The Jedge was kept 
jumpin about tryin to dodge the flyin stove legs, fiah pokers, 
books, and bench feet, commandin the peace at the top of his 
voice. Ovah behind the street doah a soldiah boy had the 
constable who rested me pinned to the wall, the pore white 
had been punched until the plasterin on the wall was loose all 
about him. The rest of the fightahs seemed to be lettin 
the soldiah and the white niggah constable fight it out in their 


HARRODSBURG WELCOMES THE SOLDIER BOYS 347 

own way, and the soldiah seemed willin. I scrambled into 
the windah to git out of the crowd and looked down see the 
upturned benches, the sprawlin desk, its books and papers 
scattered among the broken stove plates. 

‘The soldiah behind the street doah now let the constable 
go out of the room onto the street. He was quickly follered 
by the rest of the pore whites. The constables run away from 
the battle at the right time. They were scarcely on the street 
leavin the soldiah boys in possession of the cote room when 
strains of the company bugle were heard in the street, 
callin the men to rally, rally on the flag. 

“The room quickly filled with soldiahs, almost breath- 
less from their long run from the reception, and still they 
come up the street. The room and the street outside the 
windah was now jambed full of soldiahs cheerin for the flag, 
cheerin for the cote, hollerin for everybody. Among the first 
arrivals was Majah Spillman. I reckon he nevah was madder 
than when he see me standin up in the windah frame, a livin 
picchah of a black man, and red woolsey undah wear, mosly 
black man, for the red woolsey patches, where there were any 
patches left, were torn to shreds and the black would show 
through. Laws Majah was mad! But the Jedge didn't give 
him time to take that picchah down out of the windah. He 
set a bench on its legs among the puddles of tobacco 
spit on the floah, and mountin it at once declared the cote 
in session, and a much punched constable commanded: ‘Hats 
off gemmelmen, hats, off.' Every hat cludin the Majah's was 
off instanter. Eyery soldiah now stood bare headed. That 
is as many as were able to stand aftah bein welcomed home 
at the hotel, stood bare headed. All that couldn't jess stand, 
leaned against the wall, and so the fightin was ovah. The 
Jedge standin on a cote room bench with the back split away, 
addressin the visitahs, went on to say: 

“‘Gemmelmen, thar's been a slight misundahstandin here to- 
day on the part of the cote’s visitahs, though the cote undah- 


348 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

stood itself all the time. This onpleasantness growed out of 
the fact Majah Spillman’s black boy had no pass. This 
cote bein fully aware of its rights as a part of the govern- 
ment of the state, can, from its high position, see how mis- 
takened the military was in all they done, for no Kaintucky 
soldiah would allow no cullud man to run at laage without no 
gemmelman’s pass. So youall now kin see how near right 
the protectah of youah liberties, the cote, was in calaboosin 
the black boy. If it’s possible, 1 will have the ownah of the 
niggahs in the pen, a man in Ahkinsaw, pay for the new cloze 
the dischahged black boy must have.’ 


CHAPTER XLll. 

THE HOME COMING. 

fi i HAT night as the moon sailed away among the 
* clouds above the Quigley, used to be Jackson, 
woods paschah, a lone black man follerin the rail fence seper- 
atin that land from the Maashall fiels, went tords the ole 
Jackson house. He was dressed in a spankin new suit of 
blue jeens cloze with money in their pockets, but not one 
present had he for Melissy and the chillens. He had been 
dischahged by the cote and was now steppin fast aftah a long 
walk from Harrodsburg. 

“Where in the days of the Jacksons, in goin through that 
fiel he would have walked among a herd of drowzy cattle, 
layin in the grass, he now found he was alone. The great 
oak trees trimmed high so the light of the sun might reach 
the cahpet of grass beneath them, now seemed to stand as 
sentinels only to remind the passer of that night, of the hap- 
py days gone by. At times the intrudah in that solitude run 
as fast as his feet would carry him through the high grass. 
He was nearin his home and people aftah bein away with the 
soldiahs for two long years. 

“Leavin the great woods paschah lands, where now not a 
single hoof pressed the grass, the man runnin in the night 
bounded ovah the huge oak bars into the well-known lane 
that led straight from the grass fiels to the wintah feed lots 
and bahns, famous in Jackson days for fine cattle and white 
hogs. The lots were now empty, no fragrance of clovah 
blooms or blue grass ripened tops, from sleepin animals breath, 
spiced the air. The lots instead were filled with the strewn 
parts and shadows of rickety, fallen sheds and decayin fences, 
349 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


350 

while the once great hay bahn that use to be full of new 
mown hay in hahve>t time, stood out there in the night un- 
roofed. Not a single pig or sucklin calf, let alone a herd of 
short horn beauties, once there, was to be seen. Leavin the 
ole time feed lots, the black boy passed down the cedah tree 
lined rock road and follered the way ovah the divide to the 
once crowded Jackson cullud fambly quahtahs. The houses, 
many of them still standin, though in ruin, had been built in 
a pretty lill valley, the one long street they faced on leadin 
to the Maple Tree Springs where had stood Aunt Polley's 
house sence the days of her boy husband. 

“At the first crazy lookin lill clapboard roofed log house 
still tryin to stand alone in the shadow of a tree, the black 
man stopped as if spectin to be welcomed by a whole pack of 
hound dawgs he once knode as livin there, and too, to the 
best their mastah could afford, forgittin he had been away 
and not knowin the changes the race loosins and 
death had made in the fortunes of the Quigley cullud 
people. But no glad bay of hound nor whine of house 
dawg come to his ear. Silence had taken fast hold on 
the place. No sound was to be heard, not so much as the 
rustle of a leaf in the ovah hangin tree. Even the night air 
was still. He was alone! He stood where he remembahd 
standin many times befoah as his strained sight traced the 
long narrow street stretchin away between the wrecked cabins 
of the ole time Jackson negro quahtahs. Passin on, each 
tumbledown cabin recognized as his own old frien luoked ap- 
pealingly to him as if for help, but in vain, as its rotton logs 
failin of succor crouched nearer the ground than they had 
ever done befoah. 'Had the Jackson log houses grown ole 
in the years he had been away.^^' He asked hisself, 
only to ansah his own question. The cabins were ole when 
as a boy 1 visited them with Melissy. The houses are empty 
and neglected now, that is all.' 

“Everybody, and everything alive that could make a noise. 


THE HOME COMING 351 

and even the many cats so plenty in the patch, and ready to 
yowl the night away were, not to be heard or seen. He re- 
flected: ‘Some awful scourge must have driven the famblies 
of men, wimin and chillens from their homes.’ Ah, pore 
soul, he didn’t know the scourge that emptied the Quigley 
patch of its people, young and ole, in the time he had been 
away, had been wielded by the hand of the slave drivah, as 
well as that of death. Down that deserted way went the 
home -comer, between the empty cabins, not yet realizing 
the people he once knode so well as livin there, had all gone 
to their graves, or indeed more than death and a grave, to the 
cotton fiels of Ahkinsaw. 

“Not a livin soul of all the friens he had once known was 
there to tell the awful story of the breakin up of the famblies 
at an auction sale. To tell of the seperation, by sale, of fath- 
ahs, mothahs and chillens, a few to find homes among Kain- 
tiicky farmers, but most of them to go to the cotton and 
sugah states. There was no one to tell him of a mothah and 
her two chillens who had been hurried away weeks befoah 
the auction of the Quigley blacks, and how disappointe d 
many of the neighbors were when told she had been sold to 
pick cotton bolls she and her chillens, in the long rows near 
the cypress swamps of Ahkinsaw. 

“Majah Spillman, on inquirin for this fambly on his return 
to Harrodsburg, had been told of the sale and the goin away, 
but had mercifully kept the facts from the black man, and he 
had left Harrodsburg befoah the Majah could find courage to 
tell the terrible story. 

“From cabin to cabin went the black man only to find them 
all empty of everything but blackest gloom. Noisome, haht- 
freezin gloom. The cheerful wood fiahs once burnin 
on the ample stone hearths and that lit up the great black 
throated chimbleys, and the one livin room besides, of the 
one time homes, had burned out many months befoah this 
strangah hand pushed wide the doah on its wood hinges. 

“The black man laid his hand on one doah that had many 


352 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

times swung wide for him. It swung into the silence now 
beyond it at his tetch. His feet crossed an ole-time frienly 
threshold and pressed a fast sinkin floah. A smell of the 
mold of decay welcomed the comin. The cheery voices of 
the young people he had often met in that room, who like 
hisself had come in to visit the kind old ministah and his wife, 
were silent. There was nothin but silence there, but the ole 
leathah latch string still hung out for all comers. Its tetch 
had thrilled him with delight, it was the only welcome he had 
received, on his comin home. 

“From the now deserted home of him who was known as 
Ministah Samuel and who had, with the consent of the ovah- 
seah, married the black man, Josiah, to his young wife, the 
returnin black man went, to finally stop at a house the very 
sight of which now oppressed him with memories of the past. 
Why, gemmelmen, at last 1 stood befoah the log cabin from 
which the slave drivahs from Ahkinsaw, seekin a bahgain, re- 
fused to take Melissy on a racin debt of honah between Kain- 
tucky gemmelmen, because they see, soon as the piny quilt 
slipped from her fingahs and fell to the ground, that she was 
motherin. The rustle of maple tree leaves in the night air, 
the sound of a flood of spring watah flowin from out lime 
stone ledges still greeted my ears. It was the place where 
the day’s work in the grain fiels done, the tiahd mothahs 
come to soothe their babies aftah their long absence. It was 
from that place Ministah Samuel’s caht hauled Melissy, her 
bunnels, her chillens and their yallah puppy dawg. 

“The ole cabin where the young wife and her chillens were 
bawn at Maple Tree Spring, was still there. All else, cludin 
the herds of chillens and their friens, the dawgs, had gone 
away. 

“A voice now rung out on the night air: ‘Melissy, O, Me- 
lissy! I’m come! I’m come!’ There sounded above the roll 
of the spring watahs undah the maple tree leaves: ‘I’m come!’ 
Staggerin to the closed doah I pushed it open. As I done so, 
a shadder, the mere shadder of a dawg flitted by me, and was 


THE HOME COMING 353 

gone from the house. I rushed into the room, callin: ‘Aunt 
Polley! Aunt Polley!’ Only to see that the side of the ole 
chimbly had fallen away. The house was empty. 1 had dis- 
turbed the rest of a lone deserted stahvin house dawg, that 
was all. 

“By the big maple trees, past the spring, uptherockledged 
hill, past the apple orchard and the peach trees to the big 
house, sure now to find my wife, for one of Majah’s lettahs 
from home had said the Quigleys had taken her from the toll 
gate man because he couldn’t pay, 1 hurried forward, nevah 
noticin that behind me skulked the shadow of a dawg close 
by the tumble down orchard fence. The pore dawg’s was 
the thinnest shade of the two, as he sniffed the air and fol- 
lered aftah me. 

“1 stopped at the ole Jackson house gate at the head of 
Locust Tree Lane. I was tryin to open it as the dawg skulked 
by and went cringin to earth down the lane. The gate was 
about to open when 1 heard a voice. 1 was delighted. It was 
the voice of Mistus Betsy Quigley. The voice come from 
among the cedah trees. Lookin close 1 could see Mistus 
Quigley sittin the same bench where Melissy and me had 
pledged the love and constancy of ouah lives. 

“Gemmelmen, my story is yet to tell you how faithful rny 
pore wife was to the promise made by a negro slave girl to a 
negro slave, who loved her. 

“The voice from among the cedah trees was sayin: ‘Who’s 
that trapsin round this time of night.^ Now you go right 
away! Go away 1 tell you!’ 

“As soon as Mistus Quigley would hear me 1 told her who 
1 was, and why 1 was there. That 1 had Majah’s pass with 
his consent to come home, that befoah goin to the Maashall 
house I had come to meet my wife an chillens. And 
kept right on tellin her they must be at the ole Jackson place 
cause a lettah from home said to the Majah they had been 
taken from the toll gate house cause the pore white couldn’t 
pay the hire, and not givin her a chance to say a word,l went 


354 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

on to say, that I had stopped at Ministah Samuel’s and Aunt 
Polley’s house in the patch, but nobody was there to tell me 
where Melissy and the chillens could be found. And havin 
finished talkin, there that black man stood waitin for permis- 
sion to go to the big house to meet his own wife and chillens, 
all as he thought still, the property of the Quigleys. 

“As Mistus Quigley stepped out from among the cedah 
trees into the now bright rays of the moon, 1 could see how 
very thin and pale she then was, and could hear her voice 
trimble as she said: 

‘“Yes, 1 know you are Josiah, Melissy’s husband, I certain- 
ly do, but you must go on home to the Maashalls’. Go on 
now, 1 say!’ 

‘“O, kind Mistus, don’t tell me to go!’ 1 cried. ‘1 come so 
far to meet my own wife and chillens, don’t say go away to 
me!’ 

“As 1 stopped talkin, and while Mistus Quigley was walkin 
tords me, 1 heard the long faint wail of a dawg down the 
Locust Tree Lane, comin from the direction of the cabin in 
the toll house yahd. 

“By that time Mistus had walked to the gate, and leanin 
on it for support, said as though talkin directly to Melissy 
herself, and seemin not to see me atall: ‘Yes, Melissy, you 
was a good girl. You was raised among the people in the 
big house. Your troubles begun when you were married and 
went to yourself, and too, mine. My fathah and mothah 
are gone. You, with your bright chillens, were sold to the 
Ahkinsaw men and taken away. With the money from that 
sale Sqiah Quigley went back to Maine leavin me all alone. 
Aftahwards come the auction sale to pay his debts of honah, 
when youah mothah died for grief, cause ole Ministah Samu- 
el, her own husband and the ministah’s wife, were all sold to 
toiler you to Ahkinsaw. Of cose Melissy, 1 will nevah be able 
to buy you and the chillens back. Your mistus will nevah 
see you again.’ 

“To this day, gemmelmen, that is all 1 remembah of what 
kind Mistus Quigley said. How I passed down the Locust 
Tree Lane and found the way to the toll house yard and the 
cabin house 1 left the mawnin the company went away for 
the wah, 1 do not know. 


CHAPTER XLIII. 

“THE BASELESS FABRIC OF A DREAM.” 

t £ f ONLY know, the rigiment was camped by the watah 
^ near Santa Catarena, Mexico, camped in the sand 
among the cacti and prickley pear bushes where we could 
watah ouah horses at a pool and watch the Mexican pickets 
that hovahd away out on the plain. It was said, we were to 
git good and rested befoah goin aftah Santa Anna’s ahmy 
with ordahs to bring on a gineral engagement at any cost. 
We were camped, as I have said, near the nice lill city of 
Santa Catarina whose spires could be seen peepin out from 
among the green trees in the mountains’ foothills. But 
Santa Anna didn’t risk battle there with Gineral Taylor, so 
Gineral Taylor’s men were allowed to visit Santa Catarina by 
rigiments, in squads when commanded by a sahgeant and 
corporal. 

“The turn of ouah company had come for a day of city 
life. We were divided into squads, dismounted and ordahd 
to disahm, commanded not to laze along the streets in the 
way of the citizens, not to crowd into stores, nor to go into 
any dwellin house or chuch or any public hall, less with the 
consent of the sahgeant; in short we were to stay togethah 
and obey ordahs, and the troops holdin the town were to rest 
us if we disobeyed. 

“One squad of soldiahs took a black man with it. They 
were to take good care of him, and he was to take good care 
of his share of everything good to eat found by the men in 
the city. Led by the sahgeant commandin and kept close up 
by the corporal, the men walked Santa Catarina’s shady, 
watah-lined and rose-hedged streets. We loitered by the rose 
355 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


356 

hedges, talked with the Spanish, Mexican and Indian wimin 
and the girls we met best we could, not knowin much of their 
language. The men were soon loaded down with cutflowahs, 
given them by fair hands, and unloaded of their money taken 
by fair hands in exchange for fruits of many kinds. It was 
stonishin how much the men liked fruit. 

The streets were filled with Indian wimin in bright cullud, 
striped, home made blankets, warm as was the day. Mexican 
Senoretas, and Spanish beautie.s, the men called them, were 
everywhere sellin torteas, cigarets, aguadienta, muscal, panola, 
cakes of brown sugah, and palm bianco. The voices of the 
mahket wimin as they pressed the men to buy, and the wimin 
all wanted to talk at once, filled the street. Ouah men smoked 
and drank and eat, the hot day along. They were soon load- 
ed down with bottles, bunnels, bags and faded flowahs, and 
the mahket wimin were loaded down with their money. The 
men peeped into the great vine covahd cathedrals, where the 
people gathahd on that day to pray for the deliverance of their 
land from the American soldiahs. They mixed with the 
crowds from the mountains, the foothill valleys, and the great 
sandy plains gathahd there on the shady plazahs to see the 
Americans. 

“By that time^many of the squads were tired carryin the 
loads the people had helped them to in exchange for their 
money, and were allowed to lay in the shade till sahgeant was 
ready to maach to some othah shade. On one casion like 
that, sahgeant seein the post gahds comin and fearsome they 
would take us all into camp, cludin hisself, hurried the men 
to their feet, and when they come up, sahgeant was jess goin 
on to say, as he tetched his hat to the sahgeant commandin 
the gahds: ‘Attention! Front! In place, rest!’ Themenbein 
in line and undah command, the gahd passed on. When not 
wantin to risk arrest again, sahgeant said to his men, most of 
whom were still on their feet: ‘1 reckon boys, sence the 
provo gahds have their eyes on us and will be comin this way 


“THE BASELESS FABRIC OF A DREAM” 357 

soon to see if we are still standin on ouah feet, we’ll lite out. 
We’ll leave these fine Spanish and Mexican Senoretas in fine 
laces and smiles, long as ouah money lasts, and their sistahs, 
the Injun wimin, their bucks, husbands, fathahs and lovahs, 
who, too, have their eyes on us, and we know it, and who 
are all ahmed, while we're not and they know it. 1 say, if 
youall are able to keep somewhere in the neighborhood of the 
command as we go and not forgit to salute the officahs we 
meet, we’ll lite out for camp, biled beans and sow belly. So 
fall in, corporal, wake that man up and git him into line, now 
there you are. Attention! Maachl’ 

“The men straggled along the street, the rear man kept in 
place by the corporal who needed a lill help to keep some- 
where in line hisself. The men wanted to stop and rest at 
every shade from tree or wall we come to, which they did 
when it was not all taken up by Mexicans and Indians wrap- 
ped up in their blankets to keep the heat out, or by Amerian 
soldiahs doin the town as tiahd as were we, their soldiah cloze 
nearly all lugged in their ahms to keep the heat out. All 
day they had mixed with the natives and seemed to be pres- 
ent everywhere we went. 

“Every place where the sun didn’t shine the Kaintucky 
squad would begin to fall out and straggle to a wall or be- 
neath the leafy trees to be again separated from the mixup 
and propped up in line for anothah start to camp. O, that 
was a jolly set of soldiah boys as ever done a Mexican town, 
it was. And so we moved along the crowded, narrow streets 
among the ovahhangin ole Spanish buildins, the upstairs 
porches comin so near each othah out in the hot sunshine in 
the middle of the street they sometimes almost made a bridge 
from side to side of the street. One street was so narrow 
the corporal wantin to hold a crowd of Spanish Senoretahs 
back to keep them from chaagin the command with their 
cigaros to sell, and seein the sahgeant failed to reinforce him, 
he flourished his walkin stick as if to cut the laffin wimin all 


358 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

down right there in that narrow way, and leanin his broad 
back agin the wall of the buildin on the side of the street he 
was on and where he stood in battle array, as if determined to 
die in the last ditch, he stretched out his saber ahm, and 
thrustin his cane point against a doah post on the othah side of 
the street, successfully stopped the advance of the enemy and 
held them at bay until the sahgent could come to his relief. 

“The day was a fast day of the holy Catholic chuch. The 
great and small bells of every house of worship in the town 
tolled all the day long. Every Mexican carried his sombrero 
in his hand or fell to his knees as the bells sounded, as all de- 
vout Mexicans do on the ringin of a chuch bell on a fast day. 

“Mexicans are all devout, though they habitually have a 
knife hidden in their wraps, and though the people may be 
stahvin for food the priests are fat and their great cities and 
lill towns will be found, on fast days, and fast days come al- 
most every othah day, full of tollin bells, callin to prayers 
and gifts at the altars. 

“So that the streets from house wall to house wall were of- 
ten filled with people hurryin to their cathedrals to pray their 
gods that the hated American ahmy might be driven from 
their land. But for all that the post commandah had placed 
his soldiahs about the places of prayer for the worshipahs’ 
protection at least. 

“As the streets filled with music from the choirs in the 
houses of worship and with men kneelin to pray, Senoretahs 
drivin a thrivin trade with the American soldiahs, between 
their own devotions, prayin for the success of Mexican ahms, 
and the priests in the houses of worship repeated the prayers 
requiahd from them by the ruler of events for their purposes, 
the route of Gineral Taylor’s ahmy. 

“The soldiahs outside the lines of bayonets that held them 
back from enterin the places of prayer, seemed satisfied that 
as lung as the Mexicans prayed and had left their guns at 
home, though the knife was there, they had nothin to fear. 


“THE BASELESS FABRIC OF A DREAM” 359 

SO the jolly crowds of soldiahs tramped the streets that day 
off from camp duty. We had wandered in and out, a strag- 
lin line of soldiahs out for a lark, elbowin ouah way through 
the crowds goin to pray, anxious to help their priests drive 
the yankees away by some means othah than fightin them. 
We had often, on meetin a lot of the boys we knode, stopped 
to swap the contents of ouah canteens with them for a tip at 
theirs, or were lined up, all of us that could line up, to salute 
an officah tryin his best to line hisself up, as he saluted. At 
sich times the sahgeant would ordah the corporal and the cor- 
poral would issue his ordahs to the men for anothah roll 
call and count to see if we were all there, and to give the 
officahs waitin to be saluted, time to go away, and so the 
squad had come to the edge of the town, away from the 
crowds of citizens and soldiahs and fairly on the way to camp, 
alt present, or if left behind asleep in the shade as some were, 
accounted for, all right. 

“Here we stopped to rest at an ancient chuch ruin. Ev- 
ery man who was able to climb hiked hisself onto a huge 
block of stone that had fallen from the ole walls and lain so 
long in its bed of sand, blackened by age and chisseled by 
time. No man then livin in the ole town could tell the year 
of the awful earthquake that threw the great stones from the 
ole chuch towahs and walls,some of their ruins still rlsin above 
them covahd to their highest pinacle of toplin stone by mass- 
es of leaf -clad vines. The vines high up had forced their way 
in and out between the great blocks of stone left standin as a 
wall as if to push them down the dizzy heights to the fallen, 
broken mass below. 

“On the ruins of the ole buildin among the vines, on every 
stone left in its place, set cawin, croakin, screamin buzzards. 
Great fat buzzards had swarmed about the ahmy camps, and 
patiently soared ovah every ahmy straggler, two footed or 
four footed, claimin its body as a morsel rare, should the feet 
of it, four or two of them, fail, halt, and the straggler lay it- 


360 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

self or hisself, down on the sand to die. 

“The ahmy of buzzards had follered the ahmy of men, 
horses and mules, from PaloAlto’s graves in the sand beside 
the Rio Grande rivah to Santa Catarena town. Every camp 
the ahmy of men and animals made and left; every mound 
scraped high on the sandy plain to mark the restin place of 
a dead comrade by a roadside, among the prickly pears and 
sand burs; every long, drawn-out trench near where a hos- 
pital tent once stood, or the place where a wagon mule passed 
in his time checks, as the livin moved on to occupy some 
othah spot in the dfiftin sand, had, within a day of the ahmy’s 
passin, been carefully looked ovah, staked, by postin a buz- 
zard on watch, and all graves found, dug into by the buz- 
zard hosts, assisted by the wolves, for what they could git 
of the findins. No cavalry horse made his last dash for vic- 
tory, or a trench and died, as often did his ridah with him, 
but straightway the buzzards come down from the blue of 
the sky to take position beside the coveted morsel hidden be- 
neath the sand, or found festerin, unburied on the plain. It 
was all the same to the buzzard whethah his feast lay below 
or on top the yallah sand. For if the white face stared at the 
stahs in the dewless night, dozens of buzzards claimin right of 
discovery, would fight the wolf packs off. 

“But, where rifts of sand hid some far away, somebody’s 
loved one laid jess beneath the surface, aftah the paws of the 
gray wolf, lean and lank, scratched him out, the beak of the 
buzzard ahmy again asserted itself, scourged the wolf pack 
away and claimed the property as its own. The buzzards 
high up on the ruined walls were only waitin for the ahmy 
to move on and were ready to take their places on the de- 
serted camp sites, about the town. They had hovered about 
every squad of soldiahs that left camp for the town among 
the hills that festal day. They knew the location of every 
hospital, and as wasbelieved by the men, actually knode the 
hysical conditon of every pack or wagon mule in the com- 


“THE BASELESS FABRIC OF A DREAM” )6l 

mand, or bringin up its supplies, and when their terms of en- 
listment would expire. 

“Great wide-spread wings were lazily flapping in the sun’s 
hot rays up there, while othahs went sailin far above, or 
through the ole-time walls where once were great windahs 
filled with stained glass brought from across seas, now mere 
vine grown, half filled gaps, in which grew tropic trees and 
luxuriant foliage. In fact, the buzzards were to be seen 
everywhere. 

“The men had scarcely stretched themselves on the fallen 
blocks of stone for a rest and a pull at their fast emptyin can- 
teens and pipes, when the soldiah’s companion and evah pres- 
ent frien, the Mexican buzzard, was hoverin about him, dis- 
putin with him the right to the fallen stone as aroostin place, 
shriekin, belchin, fannin his own and the tiahd soldiah’s body 
with his great wings, and with his brood screamin at the top 
of his voice because of the prospects of a feast, or because his 
ole roost was occupied, and comin so close to the tiahd ovah- 
loaded, sleepy men they could kick the fat lazy things away, 
if indeed the men in their then condition could kick atall. 

“The sahgeant now seein the buzzards were about to take 
the position because of their superior energy and numbahs, 
issued strict ordahs to the corporal to drive the intruders away 
at any cost, and to git the men in line for camp once more. 

“Then sahgeant bowed his head on his breast, already 
stretched out on a stone as he was, and as a buzzard lit down 
beside him, he fell sound asleep. As the corporal was wakin 
the men and urgin them to git into shape for camp, and try- 
in to fight the sluggard away so he could wake the sah- 
geant and git him in line long with the men, and fully intend- 
in to obey the ordah myself, 1 stood among the fallen stone 
admirin the cahved wah horses horned heads. 1 was 
watchin the winged angel wimin comin out of the clouds 
from among the stahs there on the weathah beat face of the 
blocks of stone as if they were goin to sit the flyin horses as 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


362 

they run aftah the wild bulls skippin through the grass; horses, 
angels, the grass all cut deep into the stones once fallen from 
the high wall above the great arched doah where 1 stood, the 
arch itself, though cracked and spread apart by vines growin 
through and through between its stones, was still in position. 

“When, as 1 heard the corporal urgin the sahgeantto wake 
up and git in line for camp, a huge buzzard sailed lazily un- 
dah the ole arch in front of me, fly in so close to my face as 
to tetch my cheek with his outstretched wing. 1 involuntari- 
ly stepped aside from the safe place where 1 was standin, 
when, fatal step ! 1 was sinkin, slidin down through the 

mass of vines matted all about my feet. Gradually goin down 
between great blocks of chisseled stone. 1 clutched at them, 
vainly hopin to stop my descent as 1 went further and furth- 
er among the twisted interlaced vines. Graspin at the sides 
of the stony way only to have my fingah nails broken to the 
quick as they grated across the rough surfaces. Through the 
vines my body went, now catchin on a broken twig, now go- 
in down, down the incline. 1 had no time to cry out, as down 
my body glided, as the light that must have come from my 
startin point grew fainter, and a something, 1 thought it a 
slimy lizzard, quickly went his way between my face and the 
stone in front of it, not an inch from my nose. 

“The very last sound 1 remembah hearin from above was 
the shriek of the well fed buzzard 1 left sittin on the 
arch stones up there, who seemed rejoicin to see me disap- 
pear. I was finally at the bottom of the stone crevice. 1 
landed feet first with what seemed a lizzard still crawlin about 
my face, and settled down, now almost frantic with fear, 
stretched out on my back. 

“Findin 1 had stopped at last, my first endeavor was to turn 
ovah, thinkin to crawl out the way 1 had come in, but on try- 
in to do so 1 found the vines and stone spalls so tightly packed 
me about it was impossible to do so. How long 1 lay unable 
to move a limb! Wonderin how 1 was to be released, and 


“THE BASELESS FABRIC OF A DREAM” 363 

fearful the soldiah boys nevah would be able to find any trace 
of me, less they happened to notice the buzzard standin as a 
sentinel at the place of my entrance among the vines, and 
fearin the return of the lizzard, there suddenly come rays of 
light streamin into the place of my captivity. 1 was now 
aware that jess befoah my feet there was an open place all 
lit up, a place where there were no matted vines. Still lyin 
prone, 1 heard the corporal’s voice as he commanded: 
‘Come boys be quick, we’ve lost the black man somewhere, 
git the sahgeant onto his feet, there, now you have him. 
Maach! Route, step!’ 

“On tryin to obey the corporal’s ordahs 1 found 1 could go 
forward only by means of my elbows and heels as they hitched 
my body along. 

“At last there was space about my feet and to spare, 
when aftah a few more efforts 1 literally seemed to glide out 
of the constrained place 1 was in into one of greater freedom 
of motion, and soon found myself, bedraggled it is true, 
but not atall hurt, and standin in a brilliantly lit room of mag- 
nificent dimensions in its length, breadth and height. A room 
whose floah, walls, its groined ceilin, and in fact in all its ap- 
pointments was of white stone. The snowy white ceilin was 
supported by long rows of lofty fluted columns. The walls 
of the room were all paneled, the panels arched, and bordered 
by great wide fluted and molded pilasters, whose base was 
the marble wainscotin, and whose caps the ovahhangin stone 
cornice, which in beautiful proportions was a base to the deep- 
ly groined ceilin. Thousands of lit tapers, in festoons, pen- 
dants, garlands and clustahs were everywhere my eyes could 
see. The light was so strong, the glare so great, 1 was quite 
blinded at times. The great room was so lit there was no 
hidin place for any shadow atall 

“As 1 gazed, suddenly each panel on those massive walls, 
ceptin one great arched space between pilasters that seemed 
more massive than the rest, was filled with great gold border- 


364 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

ed oil paintins. There were groups of men, wimin and chil- 
lens and beautiful landscapes, all historical paintins, of scenes 
connected with the history of the Catholic chuch, for such 
was the place 1 was in. 

“On one of the panels were the sheperds as they journeyed 
through the night guided by a stah that gleamed as it led them 
on. Then a mothah and a babe mounted on a slow goin ass 
was passin by, follered by a man trudgin along behind 
footsteps that led into Egypt in Joseph’s flight to save the 
life of the babe Herod sought that he might put to death. 

“And ovah there, was a youth teachin some wise men in 
the temple. He was a mere boy of rosy face and bright 
golden hair, yet the ole men bowed befoah him, seemed all 
attention as he taught them. And there stood a woman at a 
well, pitcher in hand, while a mob of men jeered as she offer- 
ed a man in snow white garb, water to drink. And there 
were many paintins beside, all traced, and shaded by artist’s 
brush, guided by hand divine. 

“1 now noticed the white stone floah of the edifice had been 
worn into valleys, ridges, welts, pits, everywhere, but mostly 
befoah the one great panel on which, though bathed in most 
intense light no picchah had appeared, and 1 wondahd it, of 
all the wall spaces, had been left blank when so available. 
And, too, why there bein no picchah there, the floah should 
have been so worn. And all the more, because 1 found my- 
self the only occupant of that gorgeous place, in which save 
for the fact, 1 breathed, there was deathlike silence, for not 
even the cry of the buzzards was to be heard. As 1 looked 
at the paintins on the paneled walls, howevah, I was led to 
doubt if I was the only livin bein beneath that ceilin’s groins, 
for the execution of the pichahs about the room had been so 
perfectly life like, each figure there of man or beast so ani- 
mate with life, 1 thought them alt about to descend to the 
stone pavement, where I felt sure they had tread the furrows 
deep in the pavement stones throughout the centuries gone 


“THE BASELESS FABRIC OF A DREAM” 365 

by. But notidn the actors in the scenes painted on the walls 
did not immediately signify their intention to descend to the 
worn footstones, and in the absence of company, feelin my- 
self an intruder, 1 was about to make effort again to retire by 
the way 1 had come, the vine gorged crevice in the stone pile, 
when the room was filled by strains of song and instrumental 
music. Instantly 1 would have doffed my ole ahmy hat, but 
found I must have lost it in the crevice grasp and had 
left it behind me. Far away 1 now beheld a mul- 
titude of singers about a great organ occupyin space 
from the pavement to ceilin high. As the room filled with 
sound, as by magic a multitude of people moved about me. 

1 could now see how it had been possible to so wear the pav- 
in stones away. As the people kneeled all about me, I 
was aware a dignified priest stood beside me. On lookin 
at him I thought him of the city of Monterey, and the 
priest I had met who had told us the story of the cloister 
death scene and of the shadow on the mountain side. I won- 
dahd at his presence and was about to express my surprise, 
when kissin a great silvah crucifix which had lain on his 
breast, he held it befoah him and 1 at once recognized it as 
the one I had so long carried in an ole ahmy leathah bag, 
when drawin still clostah he said: 

‘“My son, you are now in one of the great temples of 
earth. This mighty house was erected by one of the kings 
of Christian Spain, as a thank offering to God after the coun- 
try of Mexico was wrested from the Montezumas to be con- 
verted to Christianity. Here the people may gather and 
worship in the true faith.’ 

“By this time, attracted by the presence of my companion, 
everybody’s frien, we were in the center of a crowd of half 
clothed, festered, scabbed, dirt-crusted chillens, numbahs of 
them partly blind, othahs their noses, and some with their 
ears all eaten away by nameless diseases. They pressed 
close about the bare feet of their frien, the priest. 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


366 

spectin a crust to fall from his hands. This seein, he 
took from the bag at his girdle a loaf of black bread, which 
breakin in small bits, so there would be nough to give each 
a morsel of food, he gave them to eat. Gave them bread he 
hisself had begged, for he had nothin of his own to eat or 
to give, and which when gone, he would himself be destitute, 
while yet some small fingahs were searchin the worn places 1 
had seen in the stones hopin to find a crumb that had fallen 
and lodged there, the fathah, his bread now all gone, as the 
still hungry people looked tords him, put his ahm in mine, 
and said: 

‘“My son, the poor ye have always with you. They are 
expecting me, who, hungry myself, exceptin as food is given 
me, to give to them to eat, 1 am now, as usual, destitute, in 
which, for Christ’s sake, 1 glory, for He gave all He had to 
man, even His life. 

“‘iMy son, look not longer on the effects of loathsome sin 
here about you. Turn your gaze from scenes on this temple 
floor to a scene to be miraculously presented to earth-clogged 
citizens by heaven’s glorified dwellers, on the vacant panel on 
yonder wall. 

“‘There, by hand divine will be reproduced in the presence 
of all the people, one of the notable scenes sf earth, an object 
lesson showing man’s frailty, his passing, and in contrast, the 
Christ, without beginning or ending.’ 

“Followin the directions of the fathah, with all the people 
about us, I saw befoah me a panel of the lofty wall of spot- 
less whiteness not a trace of cullah was to be seen on its sur- 
face flooded as it was by a sheen of light. 

“As I gazed, almost blinded by the panel’s glare, the 
tight on its surface begun to soften. It seemed to me now a 
vapor, a mere mist as from a breath, floated slowly across its 
surface, leavin a faint tinge behind it. This rapidly deepened , 
changin here and there to lines more and more defined. Then 


“THE BASELESS FABRIC OF A DREAM” 367 

from the mist now covahin the panel, come plainer and plain- 
er to be seen, the outlines of a spacious room, its walls, its 
ceilin, its floah, its great square columns in the process. 
There soon was seen a white throne seperated from an audi- 
ence space by a massive rail, and gates. There were benches 
lined with red to the left of the throne. Beyond the rail and 
the gates was ample space for a multitude to stand and places 
for some to set. A great square finished doahway opened out 
to a street. The room was lit from above by a sky light, the 
throne set by the wall ovah beyond the center of the light. I 
was lookin at a cote room of the days of the Roman empire. 
There was now a noise in the street beyond that great doah- 
way, evidently men were fillin the street, but as yet the 
room was untenanted. 

“Nearer come the noise and still nearer it come from out 
on the street, now rushed into the room comin by way of the 
wide street doah, some excited men. They seemed, from 
their garb to be of the guttahs. 1 looked again at the people 
about us, but the crowd of disheveled humanity 1 had seen 
befoah seemed still to be there. The people of the panel ev- 
idently were not from that audience room. By the time 1 
could again look at the cote room picchah on the wall, it was 
almost filled with an excited mob. The crowd now 
filled its benches, packed the great aisle and climbed into the 
windah places on the street front. Some men were standin 
on .seat backs ovah by the wall. Othahs had climbed to 
and were standin on the mouldins of the bases of the ceilin 
supports, the great square pillars. But, packed through the 
great aisle seemed to me to be, a file of spearmen now walked 
hastily in the street doah, follered by a tall man in white, 
their prisonah. A crowd of finely dressed men, who, sepra- 
atin the prisonah from the rabble, who hurled curses at Him 
as He come, pressed close behind Him. 

“The pack in the aisle fell ovah itself to escape the spear 
points and to make way for the the soldiahs as the prisonah 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


368 

and His accusahs passed in. The soldiahs with their prisonah 
now stood within the rail. 

“I had time now to look at the paisonah. He was a man 
of medium height, His robe was so white it fairly shone, His 
face in every line was as calm, as perfect peace and a pure 
soul could make a face. His brown hair hung unrestrained 
about Him. His beard of brown hair lay undisturbed on His 
breast. 1 thought His cheek flushed with the rose hue of 
health. His gaze bein directed tords the white throne when 
He come in and took position. 1 failed to detect the color of 
His eyes until 1 saw Him later as He stood befoah His accus- 
ahs. 

“Lookin again at the pack in the room this side the rail, 
it seemed soldiahs were spearin men as they opened a 
way for a late comer to enter and pass to the side of the room, 
and so the new comer, a white woman, and her babe in ahms, 
made their way slowly to a position beside a white pillar ovah 
by the wall, this side the rail, but near as the woman could 
git to the throne and where she could see the prisonah. 1 
noticed the jedge had not come in, bnt that down near the 
throne was a till crowd of excited men, I took them to be 
Jews. They were all tatkin at once, each throwin his ahms 
about violently as he pointed at the prisonah quietly standin 
among his gahds. 

“Though every man in that room, the richly dressed few 
in the throne space, the finely bedecked officahs commandin 
the spearmen, and the rabble beyond the rail kept back by the 
soldiahs from takin the prisonah in their own hands for pun- 
ishment seemed all talkin at once, not a sound could be heard 
by me. Not a sound was there for any one to hear though 
every character in the picchah on the wall was full of life and 
motion. The silence was so intense 1 was almost persuaded 1 
was not viewin real life, but what white folks call a panto- 
mime. 

“The prisonah had now taken a prisonah’s appointed place. 


“THE BASELESS FABRIC GF A DREAM” 369 

The soldiahs stepped aside so that when the cote business be- 
gun, the prisonah might stand with no impediment between 
Him and the jestice of the people as represented by the Jedge 
on the throne. 

“The mothah with the babe in her ahms stood ovahyondah 
by the wall. The seats to the right hand of the throne were 
quickly filled. All disputation ceased. The silence about 
me was most intense. All was still, save the groans and the 
sighs that rose from the stone pavement where we stood and 
the lisp of a blind boy, directed by a naked comrade, beggin 
the priest for bread, bread, which he had not, to eat hisself 
nor to give. 

“The silence was as intense as could be a tomb where had 
been lain away for eternity the dust of that vast audience. 
Oppressed by its burden I was about to cry out as would one 
suffocatin, when a voice in my ear said: 

“‘My son, see, he comes!’ A side doah now opened and 
there stepped into the throne space a man robed in white. 
Immediately all in the room rose to their feet. An offiah 
of the cote raised his rod of gold aloft, and the priest at my 
side said to me: ‘Silence! Behold Pilot, the Governor.’ Im- 
mediately attendants siezed hold of the white throne, and di- 
rected by them it glided to the incomin Governah and when 
he had ascended the steps and was seated thereon, the attend- 
ants returned the throne to its appointed place without the 
foot of the Governah so much as tetchin the floah, that he 
might sit in jedgement on the prisonah’s case, pure and un- 
tahnished, not even havin stood on a level with him. O, 
think of that! Man on a level with the Christ! 

“The priest now bent close to my face, and whispahd: 
‘Christ before Pilate.’ He had not done speakin, seemed to 
me, befoah an officah of the cote took position on the further 
side of the throne space, and liftin his golden insignah of 
office high in air, facin all in the room without seemin to turn 
his back on the throne, cried with a clear, loud voice by 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


370 

means of the priest’s whispah to me, sayin: ‘Behold the 
Governah!’ And the standin audience took seats. 

“The cote was now open. Immediately from the benches 
near the throne gathahd the prosecutors in the case, some of 
them Jews evidently of high degree. From where 1 stood, 1 
thought them addressin the man on the throne, tho no sound 
was heard, who, as they talked on and on, evidently wearied, 
cast curious glances at the tall, quiet man standin out in space 
between the soldiahs and the throne, standin alone, as if be- 
reft of all friens by a cruel fate. The lone man seemed to see 
no one in all that audience but his Jedge on the throne. 

“A low tremulous voice, as if full of tears, said to me: 
‘The child of man seated on the throne of earth, is to arraign 
the Son of God, Whose throne is in heaven.’ The man on 
the throne now waved those who crowded him about, aside, 
and imperiously demanded of the officah havin the prisonah 
in charge, as the priest bent his face to my cheek: ‘Who 
have you here.?’ As that officah bowed low befoah the Gov- 
ernah, the priest’s voice said to me: ‘This is Jesus of Naza- 
reth, the King of the Jews.’ 

“The Governah’s dark face lit up with a smile, as a man 
of bent body, evidently strugglin to bear up undah the weight 
of much of the world’s wealth of gold and gems, and prom- 
ises to pay and the corrodin care incident to a careful super- 
vision of its finances in his efforts to make his loans secure, 
a man of bald head, his beaked nose fast approachin his chin, 
a brow deeply cut by the furrows of time, immense feet in 
heelless shoes, long knotted bony fingahs and hands which 
when not engaged in a pressure of each othah al.most to the 
dislocation of their joints, clutched nervously at anything, ev- 
erything in their reach, from shere force of habit, acquired, 
certainly not innate as look at his picchah here presented, 
clutched at it as if to take it, but not darin even so much as 
to tetch the throne or its polished steps. The man in most 
humble attitude now bent low at the limit of approach to the 


''THE BASELESS FABRIC OF A DREAM” 371 

throne, his open palm and his wide extended fingahs pressed 
his hollow breast, his sincerity was evident. He surely rep- 
resented nothin personal as he bowed low, nothin but the 
honah of his race, the good of all the people. Standin there, 
he awaited permission of the man on the throne tOt speak, 
but nevah removin his eyes from the floah. 

"As the Governah fixed his gaze on the man befoah him, 
his face betrayin the humor of the situation beamed with the 
rays of a faint smile, then evidently at the limit of his pa- 
tience with the scene, his hand imperiously motionin the ab- 
ject pleader to stand erect. And the fathah at my side said 
to me:'Speak! Is this he for whom your wise men have 
waited for, to become King of the Jews? Speak on.' 

"Then with every nerve vibratin with suppressed excite- 
ment as was plain to be seen, the man violently rubbed his 
palms togethah and standin erect, his right hand now pressin 
his breast, the fathah whispahd to me in tones of intense 
earnestness: 'Nay great and noble Pilate, most exalted Gov- 
ernor, annointed of God to rule. Believe me sir, when in 
defense of my people Israel I truly say, with humility as be- 
coming a man of my race in thy presence, this babbler who 
so brazenly stands in thy presence, not deigning so much as 
to bend his face to the floor, when thy gaze is cast on him, is 
a destroyer of the peace, a teacher of strange and untrue doc- 
trines. Doctrines subversive of the empire, and the church 
alike. This man who would make believe he is sent as a 
teacher from God, is a disturber of the faithful and of all al- 
legiance to divinely instituted government and therefore of the 
lives of the common people. HJs they who are becoming 
demoralszed, 'tis among them he influences to sedition, they 
in their lack of information are the ones who must suffer in 
temporal and spiritual matters, not the educated; not the rich, 
but the poor of the emperor's subjects, the uninformed, the 
men whose time should be occupied delving for bread, men 
who have no time for investigation. No man learned in the 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


372 

history of our holy church regards him or his words. Israel, 
mindful of her glorious history; mindful of the fact that the 
mouth of her own great leader, him who wrested her 
people from slavery in Egypt, Moses, the great 

Israelite, was chosen of God to make first poc- 

lamation to men, of the facts of creation. That in 
the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Israel, 
mindful of the high honor done her and her people in the 
ages past, and of the promises yet to come, before the firma- 
ment shall be rolled as a scroll; Israel, true to her allegiance 
to the only true God, the God of her fathers, bids me, her 
unworthy representative here to-day, to make this her proc- 
lamation: ‘To all Emporors, Governors and their subjects, 
Israel bows fo God; Israel bows before the Roman Emporor; 
Israel bows to thee, O Governor.’ 

“‘To these O, most gracious Governor we owe allegience, 
not to this blasphemer, this impostor Who before the masses 
would make Himself equal with God. Blasphemer! impostor! 
He is not our king! We bow not to him.’ Then the speak- 
er bent befoah the throne until his face hung low, at once 
stood erect, his thin body now inclined far to the left, his 
head layin ovah on his left shouldah, a mock smile coverin 
his grimaced, contemptuous face, his two hands wide open, 
the bony fingahs nervously in motion reachin tords the silent 
prisonah, as the lips were glued to my ear, uttered: ‘The 
King of the Jews,’ and then, as the man’s head wagged from 
side to side, my sense of hearing was saluted with a ‘Hah, ha 
ha. Thou, the King of the Jews!’ Then standin erect befoah 
the white throne and him that sat thereon, and with hands 
raised high, lookin into the now solemn faceof theGovernah, 
the Israelite cried with a voice so loud all in the cote could 
hear, had they my means of knowledge, the assistance of the 
fathah’s whispahd voice whose low tones now absorbed my 
attention: ‘Your highness, this is the malcontent whose efforts 
are to steal from the Roman government the hearts of its 


“THE BASELESS FABRIC OF A DREAM” 373 

people, and Who would teach them disloyalty, as He prates of 
a kingdom His father is to set up for Their government. Not 
only does He teach disloyalty to Rome, but to the power of 
the anointed ones of the synagogue as well. This man makes 
Himself equal with Israel’s God by teaching the common peo- 
ple that he is the son of God.’ 

“While yet the representative of Israel befoah thegovemah 
was speakin, and because of his denunciations, there begun a 
tumult among the rabble, who now pressed hard against the 
rail and gates separatin them from the throne space, and one 
man, if he was even as exalted an animal as is man when 
compared to a worm, as a contrast, stretched hisself far out 
across the rail, pursed his lips, and spat on the gahments of 
the prisonah at the bar while the accusin attorney still standin 
befoah the throne continued to address thegovemah. Through 
it all, the prisonah. His ahms folded on His breast, stood 
calmly surveyin the scene about Him, nor seemed to notice 
the indignities offered Him, nor yet to hear His accusor atall, 
ceptin a faint look of remembrance that seemed to me flitted 
across His face as Moses commission by God to speak to 
mankind of His creation of the earth, was spoken of That 
past. He relapsed into His usual unimpressed mood, and calm 
indifference of all the proceedings. 

“Durin all the proceedins, the tumult, the accusations, the 
base indignities offered the Christ, Him Whom she loved, in 
the presence of that vast audience whose hopes of life beyond 
the grave depended on the truth of the prisonah’s testimony 
and teach ins, and of which man has no othah directly com- 
municated information save His, Who taught men only the 
good, the woman with the white chile stood by the white wall, 
unnoticed by the man on the throne, or by the knot of edu- 
cated pleaders beside its steps, the soldiahs, the accusah, or 
the accused. 

“No attention was paid to her, she was allowed to stand 
babe in ahms, nor asked to be seated. Glancin from the 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


374 

tiahd mothah to the throne where was still the Governah, I 
see him rise hastily to his feet while yet the Jew was seemin- 
ly pleadin his cause. Immediately as the Governah stood, 
the Jew was seated, as were all who had seats, and he who 
had noc a seat hidin his face bowed low until the Governah 
spoke. Then the Governah motioned to an otFicah, for the 
prisonah to come clostah, which seein, the Jew rose to his feet 
as if to address the throne. This unparalleled indignity, the 
Governah havin risen hisself and still standin evidently a la- 
mentable inadvertance on the part of the prosecution was im- 
mediately noticed by the officah of the cote, and but for the 
Governah motionin him back, the unfortunate man would 
have been turned ovah to the soldiery at once. As it was the 
attorney for Israel sank into a seat to repent of his untoward 
act. This incident closed the prisonah now stood close to 
the throne. The Governahs black eyes gazed with kindly 
rays into the placid blue eyes of Him who stood befoah him. 
Then kindly lips moved in speech from him whose right it 
was to sit on a throne, and a low voice said in my ear: 
‘Hear’st Thou not the many things they witness against Thee?' 
Then while waitin for the ansah from the man, if he was a 
man. He of the spittle soiled garb, standin befoah him, the 
Governah drew his snowy robes about his august personage 
as he sat him down and leisurely unfoldin a writin just hand- 
ed him, straightway the priest said in my ear, as Pilate lean- 
ed forward restin his head on his hand as he read: ‘‘Have 
thou nothingtodo with that just man for I have suffered many 
things thisday in a dream because of Him.' And that was all 
1 heard of the readin. 

“Every eye in the cote room, and of the vast multitude as- 
sembled in that cathedral buildin was now riveted on the pris- 
onah. He was now to offer His defense. But He stuod si- 
lent. He said not a word, I was now all attention as a sound 
of many voices filled my ear, for the good priest, drawin close 
to me, now placed his ahm about my neck as he said, while 


“THE BASELESS FABRIC OF A DREAM” 375 

restin his cheek against my own: ‘The chief priests demand, 
and the people ask for the release of Barabbas, and what 
shall 1 do with Jesus, Which is called Christ!’ ‘Let Him be 
crucified.’ ‘Why what hath he done.^’ ‘Let Him be cruci- 
fied! let Him be crucified!’ Then from a white bowl I had not 
seen befoah Pilate took watah in his hand, and washin his 
fingahs said in my hearin, through the mouth of the priest: 
‘1 am innocent of the blood of this good man, see ye to it.’ 

“The lips pressin the stone floah all about u> now 
give voice to groans and lamentations. The tongue of the 
priest was not needed to convey the sound to me. Lookin 
again at the picchah on the wall, 1 see all was in commotion 
there. The soldiery were clearin the room of the people. 
The Jew still cringed into the seat where the frown of the 
officah of the cote had placed him. From the street beyond 
the great square doahway now come the wild cries of a mob. 
It was surgin to the very limits of the cote room, and the 
priest said: ‘They are crying crucify Him! crucify Him! away_ 
with Him! away with Him!’ ‘O, the loving Christ.’ 

“Now for the first time, the prisonah unmoved by the tu- 
mult, looked tords the white wall where was still standin the 
mothah and chile leanin hard against the wall, which seein, 
the mothah removed the babe from her breasts and held it 
out at ahms full length as if to present the babe to Him. 
Lookin now at the mothah and babe there went out from 
Jesus’ eyes a beam of dazzlin light, so that the woman, the 
babe, the wall beside them, the great square column by which 
the mothah had stood so long while the people occupied the 
seats about it to her exclusion, were transformed from costly 
marble to pearl of crystal purity. The mothah and her chile, 
the center of the rays with Christ, ‘Who is the light given to 
man,’ the source of it. I was so intently watchin the white 
baby, reminded by its face as 1 was of the one the still ery 
hand buried among the briahs by the tree, watchin the mothah 
surrenderin her loved one, the chubby cheeked, rosy fingahd 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


376 

babe, for what would not a mothah give to Christ, that 1 
failed to notice the changes now rapidly goin on in the great 
cote room on the wall. 

“A pall of blackness, the very opposite of the light which 
had shone on the mothah and babe, was now hangin ovah 
and fast settlin down about the Governah and his throne, 
while the Jew, only a mere shadow at his best, and not ac- 
counted as a factor in the case on trial aftah that onereprovin 
look from the Governah, witnessed by Him, Who was the 
prisonah, was not to be seen atall! he had disappeared entire- 
ly from the scene and was, as it would have been well, had he 
nevah existed. So too, faded away all that had so perfectly 
represented real life as seen in the characters composin the 
great picchah. The Governah, the soldiahs with the spears, 
the representatives of the Jewish Sanhedrim who were the 
prosecutors, the rabble, he who spat earth’s slime on the rep- 
resentative of the King of heaven, all faded away, as fades 
man and his works away, until naught was to be seen save a 
wall panel in a glow of light with only Him, Who had been 
the prisonah the center of it. 

“1 now turned to the priest at my side, to say, of all the 
scenes, and men of high degree, we have witnessed here, be- 
hold there remains of earth, nothin. See there is only the 
buffetted prisonah, the Christ. But the priest was nowhere 
to be seen. He too, bein of the earth, earthy, had vanished. 
W'hen in sorrow, glancin at the panel on the wall, I cried out, 
for the fathah’s whispahd voice too was now departed: ‘O, 
what if the Christ too should depart from me, and become 
to my soul only a memory!’ 

“A black woman who had stood with her ragged chillens 
watchin a steamboat crowded with soldiahs as it went away 
from a rivah landin now hearin the bugle’s call, leaped away 
from her chillens, run down the grassy road to the rivah and 
with her hands outstretched tords the fast recedin boat fell on 
her face. Then 1 looked again. 1 could now, though faintly, 


“THE BASELESS FABRIC OF A DREAM” 377 

trace outlines, not of marble walls, not of grand and lofty pil- 
lars, not of cornice ovahhangin arched panels, but of smoke 
blackened house logs. There was a stoopy doah standin wide 
open, a sunken porch floah beyond. There was a long deep 
fiah place filled with blackness, the fiah logs all burned out. 
Its great crane swung out ovah a wide stone hearth. Then 
my hand rested on what, as dark as was the room, 1 knode 
to be the ax-hewn plank floah my chillens and Genie had 
spent their baby lives crawlin ovah. There was the pressure 
of a sleepah’s body on my side, deep breathins seemed all 
about me. 1 knode my boy lay beside me, he jess would lay 
there! Then beyond him lay his mothah, and in her ahms a 
baby girl, all sound asleep. Then it was my heart bounded 
with delight, for 1 knode 1 had not been away from Melissy 
and the chillens atall, that 1 had slept on the floah of the toll 
gate cabin house aftah a day’s work in the hahvestfiel, dream- 
in long drawn out dreams of wah and death, that was all. 
The goin to Mexico, and all that, seemed to have come to 
pass and the journey home had been only a dream, thank 
God, only a dream! 

“John Clay Maashall was at home alive and well. 1 had 
seen him only the day befoah on Selim’s saddle, as he rode 
beside the hahvest fiel where 1 had helped the Quigleys be- 
cause they were now short of hands to care for a hahvest on 
the few acres they had left. So dismissin the dream picchahs 
from my mind 1 laid up closetah to my boy. 


CHAPTER XLIV. 

ALL THAT WAS LEFT OF A SLAVE MAN’S FAMILY 
. WAS THE CHILDREN’S “YALLAH DAWG.” 

fc i ¥ NOW composed myself for a dreamless sleep the rest of 
^ the night, that 1 might be prepared for the labors of to- 
morrow, because 1 was to help with the hay. For, O, happy 
me, 1 had been dreamin. 1 had not gone away from home and 
wife and chillens atall. 1 had only worked too hard in the 
sun. 1 had not been hurried from my breakfast by a bugle 
hohn, Ha! Hal Ha! 1 was in my own wife’s room. On 
wakin from my dream of the cathedral, some one must have 
told me about bein in Mexico. 1 found 1 had disturbed the 
sleepers, about me on that laid down bed on the puncheon 
floah, and that was all we could have, at the toll gate house. 

“Clarrisy too, was restless, she was dreamin, perhaps of me. 
Then there was a scaldin hot kiss on my hand. Again I heard 
the troubled sleeper’s faint voice. The kisses were on my 
cheek now and my face was covahd by a hot breath. There 
was a faint noise, it lengthened into a whine, and I knode at 
last that an animal, a dawg, was restin his head on my breast. 

“I had been kissed to life and wakefulness, there on the 
floah of Melissy’s one time home, the toll gate cabin, by the 
deserted, stahved, chillen’s yallah dawg. 1 had at last awoke 
to the truth, that all that was left of the slave fambly 1 had 
left on goin to Mexico, was the chillen’s yallah dawg. 

“Had you, Gemmelmen, been there that mawnin aftah 
Mistus Quigley regretted the sellin of her black people, you 
might have seen a lone black man and a stahved dawg go 
away befoah it was yet daylight from the log cabin house in 
the toll gate yahd, go up the pike road to Walnut Tree Lane, 
finally draggin themselves through the gate where a pore dyin 
black mothah once cried for her chile, up a wide stone walk 
past the ole summah house, to lay themselves down on the 
side porch floah to die. 


378 


CHAPTER XLV. 

THE WEDDING. 

i 6 HE chillins’ dawg and me were found where we lay 
* more dead than alive, by the house wimin at day- 
light and cared for. 

“The first thing 1 see when 1 opened my eyes in the ole 
home again was the bright shovel, tongs and fiah poker, 
standin by the white maable mantel, where John Clay Maa- 
shall and me used to hang ouah stockins formothah Maashall 
to fill chock full Chrismas mawnins, for mothah wanted us 
to be still her boys. The bright hand irons standin on the 
red brick hearth were still there, and there in its ole place on 
the wall hung a gold frame and from it looked out the kind 
face of the ole Maastah, Kunnel Maashall, as he looked the 
day he told Lemuel to turn fathah loose among the barls of 
apple jack in his cellah. The next thing 1 see was a soff 
white hand as it smoothed a black man’s face most hidden in 
the snow white beddin cloze as sweet lips kissed the black 
cheek. It was a kiss from Mistus Clarrisy. She kissed her 
boy playmate away from home, she said aftahwards, and she 
kissed him back home again. Mistus Clarrisy tiptoed out 
of the room, leavin me in the care of the house people, where 
1 lay for weeks. As she was shooin some black chillens away 
from the doah who were there to peek and to help if they 
could, 1 see layin by the hearth the long, lank frame of a 
yallah dawg. It was lookin straight from between its bony 
paws out of its great hollow eyes at my bed, watchin for me 
to wake, as it had done for days past, 1 was told. I opened 
my eyes again, and there, his fore paws on my bed rail, stood 
the merest skeleton of a dawg with life in it possible to be 
379 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


380 

thought of. That dawg and me, was all that was left of the 
black fambly that loved the white chile at the toll gate house. 

“1 shet my eyes to hide the famished skeleton from my 
sight and the terrible truth from my mind, but in vain. I 
had seen all that was left of my fambly. When aftah many 
days of quiet I was able to set by the windah, and talk to the 
chillens dawg, now my fast companion, the windah in 
the boys’ room where Mistus Maashall used to teach her boys 
their nighties, and was lookin down at the wide stone walk 
where Lemuel sured fathah he was as hefty as any cullud 
man on the Maashall place, but vised him to go straight 
home and not lay down in the snow to rest, Majah Spillman 
who had made many long visits to me sence the house folks 
found the dawg and me layin on the back porch floah that 
mawnin aftah the trial at the calaboose in Harrodsburg, set 
down side me, and aftah talkin about the cotton landin down 
in Ahkinsaw, and the woman we saw fall to the ground im- 
plorin the steamboat to stop for her, only to be stood up 
again by the white ovahseah when he caught her, told me the 
Quigleys sold Melissy and the chillens while the Maashall 
fambly were grievin because of the Kunnel’s death. 

“And in fact, there bein no white folks left on the Maashall 
land ceptin ole Mistus and Mistus Clarrisy, they nevah knode 
Melissy had been sold until the wagon drivah goin there with 
provisions for Melissy was told by a new toll gate keepah 
that the Quigleys had sold the black woman that lived with 
the gate fambly befoah he come. It was while we were look- 
in out of that windah in the boys’ room at the big gate weall 
started down Walnut Tree Lane from, for the race to the 
wah, that Majah Spillman promised me, aftah tellin me of a 
weddin that was to be, that Melissy and the chillens should 
be brought back home at any cost of money. Well, the 
weddin did come off. It was jess a quiet, home weddin when 
Majah Spillman and Mistus Clarrisy Maashall were married. 


THE WEDDING 


381 

As the fambly were in mournin for the ole Kunnel, and Cap- 
pen Maashall, only the very near friens about them were 
there, but it was given out that latah on a grand infair party 
would be given to the ole soldiah company and all the people 
far and near. 

“Now begun the new life for Majah and myself, only he 
was rejoicin in his new found happiness, while I was almost 
crushed by my sorrow while waitin for the infair party to be 
ovah, when 1 hoped to go with Majah and Mistus Spillman 
down the Massissippi rivah to find my wife and chillens, as 
they promised we would do, so that, as the day for the great 
infair drew nigh, my haht grew lighter, until 1 found myself 
whistlin all the tunes of my boyhood days. 


CHAPTER XLVI. 

THE INFAIR. 

£ < T^ HE Spillmans were to go to housekeepin for them- 
A selves. Mistus Clarrisy was to leave her ole 
home forevah for the new one on the Spillman place by the 
ole watah mill. So this house where you now lissen to the 
story of Melissy and the chillens, was to be her home. 

“With that in mind it was repaired and refurnished from 
cellah to garret. All the ole-time furniture, ceptin the keep- 
sakes, was divided among the cullud famblies on the place. 
My! their houses did look sniptious, comfortable as they was 
befoahl Every cahpet was cut up to fit some auntie’s punch- 
eon floah. The cat holes, both big and fill, in the cabin doahs 
for the fill and big cats, were shet up so that not even the ole 
Thomas cat hisself could tiptoe ovah the cahpets. 

“All that time while fixin up so fine, the cullud folks were 
preparin for the Spillman infair party. 

“So, one day, anothah gineration follerin the ole fambly 
that had moved out at fife’s close, as all ole famblies must do 
on this earth to give place to the new, who in their turn move 
on, moved in. They come through a shower of rice and ole 
slippahs throwed all ovah them by their young friens who 
had come to welcome them here. 

“And so the infair day had come. Majah Spillman and 
his wife, Clarrisy Maashall Spillman, were to have with them 
in their house the ole soldiah company that rode with Cap- 
pen Maashall to his death, and that undah Majah Spillman 
fell back down the stony streets in Monterey, finally to plant 
their battle flag on the city plaza, not knowin where their 
leader was who had fallen in the attempt. The soldiah boys, 
382 


THE INFAIR 383 

not left in the sand in Mexico, had all been invited to the in- 
fair, officahs and men. Not one had been missed. 

“Lieutenant Caatah who had not called on the Spillmans 
or Maashalls sence the weddin, nor in fact sence comin 
home from Mexico, was specially invited to he here. A 
squad of soldiah boys, who respected him as a brave good 
man, goin to his house with the tattered guidon, and the bat- 
tered bugle hohn 1 heard the mawnin weall stahted away, and 
dreamed about that night 1 come back. As then, it sounded 
its call, fall in, fall in, fall in, shahp, so that all soldiahs, their 
famblies and their friens might hear its welcome to the infair, 
but the Lieutenant failed to come. 

“The people and the soldiahs come across the fiels, and 
along the turnpike roads. They walked, rode in the saddle 
in parties of ladies and gemmelmen, and their servants. They 
rolled along in their carriages, a black boy drivin, a blackjboy 
ridin on the seat behind. Everybody but Lieutenant Caatah 
was at the Spillman house, laffin, talkin, eatin, drinkin, sing- 
in. The ole Spillman house was filled with merry makers. 
The grass plats among the cedahs were alive with joyous 
young and ole folks gathahd undah the hangin lights. This 
ole house and the grounds were flooded with light and song. 

“Everybody talked about the happy weddin that had united 
two of the oldest famblies of this country, the Spillmans and 
the Maashalls, and of the happy years to come for the husband 
and wife. And then, 1 too, was happy, because as soon as 
the infair was ovah, Majah and Mistus Spillman were to go 
on their weddin tower, and take Josiah, and would bring Me- 
lissy and the chillens home from Ahkinsaw. So that, as 1 fond- 
ly patted the head of the once pore stahved yallah dawg, the 
chillen’s pet, Genie loved so well, now as fat as he could roll, 
I could hahdly wait for the infair night to pass and the next 
mawnin to come, for the horses, drivahs and carriages were 
all ready to go, only, what was to become of the yallah dawg, 
my close companion and frien, while we were gone.^ 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


384 

“Ole Mistus Maashall was as proud of the young people 
who were to begin their married lives in the Spillman home 
as a Maashall knode how to be of their own folks. 1 nevah 
see her seemin so fond of Mistus Clarrisy or as happy as she 
was that night as she moved among the people, and 1 had 
been in her house sence fathah made his Chrismas giff of a 
wee duck-legged black boy, to his ole Mastah. 

“A brothah of Mistus Maashall was therefrom Virginia, an 
ole gray headed gemmelman, and Mistus Maashall loved him 
sincerely. Wherevah she went the evenin long her ole gray 
haired brothah was with her. Togethah they presented the 
young husband and wife to the company. Togethah they 
invited the people all, to the long tables on the lawn loaded 
with a splendid feast. Togethah they stepped out to the 
sound of music played by her own cullud people and led the 
grand maach, and stepped off the first cotillion. And so the 
night wore away, shakin hands, talkin, laffin, promenadin, 
dancin, eatin and drinkin. 

“Aftah the dancin and feastin was ovah,the people gathahd 
about the sahgeant of the horse company, beggin him to tell 
of the campaign in Mexico. They lissened to him tell of the 
night ride through the bresh, and of the Mexican officah who 
fell defendin his gun, and every hand clapped in honah of 
the brave man. Then Majah told of the flowahs and the 
vines and the ladies he met in Monterey, and how he had de- 
livahd his trust to the mothah and chile who found him 
wounded almost to death in their own gahdcn. 

“Then the horse company roll was called, and every lady 
and gemmelman in the party ansahd promptly to her or his 
name, and all were declared present or accounted for, ceptin 
Lieutenant Caahtah. A vote taken sensed him as he might 
be sick. 

“The company now scattahd everywhere, out of doahs. It 
was a lovely night. Many went to the ole watah mill to see 
the watah roll away ovah the long dam, othahs were singin; 


THE INFAIR 


385 

some danced. Josiah and his yallah dawg both so full of 
suppah and happiness they could hahdly walk, waddled fast 
as they could carry themselves to an ahmy tent the boys had 
brought from Mexico with them, and had loaned to the Spill- 
man cullud folks. They in turn had set up the tent away out 
by the apple orchahd trees where they and the cullud people 
from the country round,their ownjguests, were making merry 
in their own way. 

“The cullud people were gathand about the ahmy tent. 
They were casionally drinkin lemonade of their own makin, 
with jess a dash of ole peach and apple jack splashed into it 
for a tase. In the middle of the tent was a big washin tub 
set on a table. Inside the washin tub was the wide, wide sea. 
Away out from land, in the very middle of the wide sea was 
an island that looked at a distance like white sugah. On the 
sugah island were ranges of lofty mountains, each mountain 
peak was covahd with snow. Some said as the snow was 
white it must be sugah. There was one bald mountain that 
minded me of Gineral Taylor’s mountain where he planted 
his flag befoah attackin the city of Monterey. One of the 
cullud girls filled my glass, long as 1 was tellin the company 
how much the two mountain’s air tased alike. 

“All along the sugah islands sugah beach rolled the wide 
sea of ole apple jack peach blooms five years ole and lemon 
juice. As the storm on the sea increased the surf rolled 
higher and higher up on the sugah beach, and directly the 
lemon peel and cinamon bark begun to drift ashore and pile 
up along the sand roll, showin there was a wreck outside the 
bar. Then everybody took anothah gode of the sea watah 
>0 as to help calm the storm. One good ole mothah said: 
‘Pears to me its a dangersome shore, for a thirsty man 
to be wrecked on so be keerful boys, be keerful.’ But the 
visitahs to the sea side as they watched the wreckage of lem- 
on peel come in on the waves and pile up on the beach, drunk 
and drunk of the rollin swells. In fact many of the visitahs 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


386 

to the sea shore were already tiahd walkin the white sugah 
beach when the dawg and me got there, they was, so we 
took the places of two othah people who wanted to rest. 

“The dawg and me had shared in everything comin ouah 
way so far, and seein him sniff the sea breeze 1 knode he 
thought it good, for dawgs do think, else how did he know it 
was me that night we met when he follered me to the toll 
gate house puncheon floah. 

“And so we stood togethah lookin out to sea, watchin the 
driftwood pile on the beach as it does at the mouth of the 
Columbia rivah on the sands of Long Beach near the pretty 
Gillette Cottage, the lovable Gillette Cottage, Washington. 
So it was, we drunk and lapped, and lapped and we drunk, 
and it took me a long time to tell jess why it was Gineral 
Taylor wasn’t whipped at PaloAlto, or Saltilo, Buenavistah 
or Monterey, while the chillen’s great fat dawg lapped and 
wagged his tail stid of his tongue. 

“1 was about to fill anothah gode with sea foam when a 
house girl, aftah takin a tase herself, told me the company 
wanted to go home, but that Mastah and Mistus Spillman 
were out walkin and the housekeepah wanted me to find them 
and vite them to come in and bid their company good night. 

“So takin anothah good look at the storm outside the bar, 
and anothah lap at the surf, the chillen’s dawg and me went 
in search of Majah Spillman and his wife. We went through 
the apple orchahd callin for them as we walked. We stood 
among the trees at the fishin place above the mill dam, and 
noticed the head gate was shet for that night and the watah 
turned off the race so that the millah and his help might visit 
the seashore, and see the islands and the mountain peaks far 
out at sea in the washin tub. 

“1 didn’t remembah of a time when the mill was stopped 
so long befoah in my day. We walked down among the 
sycamore trees side the mill race thinkin to find the Majah 
and Mistus Clarrisy in one of the nice roomy seats fohmed by 


THE INFAIR 


387 


the roots of the sycamore trees, but they weren’t there. 

“We left the place the ahmy camped in when you were all 
here so many years aftah that infair night, to return to the 
house along the hill pacth, leavin the ole watah mill to the 
left of us, silent and alone. As we went along we heard a 
noise like a gun shot. Thinkin some soldiah boys were pep- 
perin the rats about the mill on land, or watah snakes on the 
rocks below the watah wheel, one, we passed on. When 
nearly to the house 1 plainly heard a second gunshot down 
tords the mill. The boys were still shootin snakes. There 
was a mighty site of snakes down there, and as people often 
shot at the snakes, attracted by the light of a fiah, 1 thought 
nothin of the gun shots. 

“Then all was still. The dawg barked and jumped up at 
my side, sayin as plain as he could, ‘come on, come on,’ but 
1 quieted him and we went to the house. The guests were 
standin there in couples ready to say their good bys and to 
wish Majah and his wife long lives of happiness, but the 
young married folks didn’t come. 

“Then the young ladies went out into the enemy’s country 
and capchahd the buglah of the horse company and his sweet 
haht somewhere on the lawn, and a drove of the girls 
brought them into camp, and aftah takin the battered ole bu- 
gle hohn from off the sweethaht’s neck, where it had been 
placed to keep the boys from stealin it, less the lady was will - 
in. Each girl tried to purse her lips to blow a call on the 
hohn, but the bugle, while it seemed to enjoy the pursin of 
the lips, jess wouldn’t make no noise atall. So the buglah 
handed the bugle to his lady frlen, and she put her lips to its 
lips and took them away quick, and then the buglah 
pressed his own lips to the hohn’s lips mind you now, 
and there went away on the night air a clear call, the sweet- 
est the soldiah boys said that ole bugle evah blowed, and they 
all knode it for a fact. 


CHAPTER XLVIl. 

MURDERED ON THE GRINDING FLOOR OF THE OLD 
WATER MILL. 

£ £ A ND then the ladies commenced to call the roll, and 
they called and called Mr. and Mrs. Spillman! 
Mr. and Mrs. Spillman! But they didn’t say ‘here’ as we 
spected them to do. So the dawg and me went across 
the lawn, down the hill, where 1 stood above the silent mill 
lissenin to the fallin watahs from up the stream, and lookin 
at the great mansion house ail lit up as I remembahd seein a 
great cathedral once in a dream. 1 wasnt thinkin about the 
dawg atall, but all at once he jumped to my breast, and then 
we run down the hill to the mill. Followln the cryin dawg 
we stood side Mistus Clarrisy’s body stretched out on the 
ground, motionless, as if she was dead. 

“We took the body from the ground, carried it up the hill 
to the house, and laid it in this room. We had hahdly laid 
her down and the ladies taken chahge when the young men 
brought into the great hall, the body of Majah Spillman. 
Majah Spillman’s body was found jess inside the ole watah 
mill doah, on the grindin floah, a pistol ball had entered his 
temple in front of the right ear. His white cravat, and once 
snow white vest and shirt, were red with his own blood, Ma- 
jah Spillman, the frien of Cappen Maashall, who fell at Palo- 
Alto; him 1 hid among the vines and helped to coax back to 
life in the hospital at Monterey; the husband of dear Mistus 
Clarrisy, had been murdered on the grindin floah of the ole 
watah mill. 


388 


CHAPTER XLVlll. 

MISTRESS CLARRISY’S DEATH. 

i ir HE battered bugle hohn that once wailed ovah the 
•I two graves in the sand neath the trailin moss, went 
through the blue grass country callin everybody to the infair 
party from Pisgah chuch to Stillery Hill, in the last summah 
month of 1848. It was in the year 1862 the Linken ahmy 
burned the ole watah mill on whose floah Majah Spillman 
was killed, and then went away south crossin the ole-time ce- 
dah bridge. 

“Mistus Clarrisy, her mind ovahthrown, gentle as was the 
babe 1 rocked in her cradle, and like a babe as ready to cry as 
to laff, cried, laffed and sung from August, 1848, the infair 
night, all down the years to Septembah the ninth, 1865, sev- 
enteen dreadful years. Then death released her burdened 
soul from all sorrow and ushered it into the happiness that 
comes with the tomorrow, that is always due to come tomor- 
row. 

“Melissy and the chillens had not been heard fromdurin all 
the years sence the night their house dawg found me on the 
cabin floah in the toll house yahd. 

“Majah Spillman and Mistus Maashall were dead, Mistus 
Clarrisy, insane. There was no one to find them now. They 
seemed lost forevah to me, though 1 nevah give them up. 

“When Mistus Maashall’s will was opened aftah her death, 
it was found she had willed the Maashall home place to my 
use and the use of my wife and chillens durin my own and 
their life time, and weall were to care for her pore demented 
daughtah until her death. 

“Among all the deaths and goins away, in the years I have 
389 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


390 

told you of, the chillen’s yallah dawg was my fast frien and 
companion aftah he lay down beside me in the cabin to die, 
I think in the years that passed until one lovely day eighteen 
years aftahwards when he, too, died, unless it was when he 
got so ole he could only walk to the middle of the road and 
there lie waitin for Melissy and the chillens to come back to 
us, he nevah if he could crawl to me, allowed hisself to git 
out of the sight of his ole eyes off me 
“The night Mistus Clarrisy died the chillen’s dawg was 
lyin close to my seat side the death bed, when I heard the 
sound of distant wheels on the road. Seein me lissenin, the 
dawg left the room to see if Melissy was comin, but soon re- 
turned hangin his head. She had not come. Mistus Clarrisy’s 
face was almost hidden in her pillow as the dawg rested his 
paws on her bedside, when, as one wakin from a sleep she 
looked about her and in her ole-time tone of voice said; ‘Is 
mothah asleep.’ Chokin the sobs down best 1 could, 1 said; 
‘Yes, Mistus, Mothah Maashall has been sleepin for a long 
time, she has.’ Then her voice, almost lost to my hearin, 
said; ‘Have the friens gone home, is the infair party ovah.?’ 
i told her the infair party was ovah and all the friens had gone 
home. Then she nesseled her snow white head in the great 
weddin pillow, once the restin place of her young husband’s 
head also, that one of the house wimin had placed on the bed 
for the night, she laid her hand on the head of the chillen’s 
dawg whose paws were still restin on the white sheet close 
beside the one he had watched for so many long years, and 
as if talkin directly to him, Mistus, almost in a whispah, said; 
‘When my husband comes from the ole watah mill, where he 
is talkin with Lieutenant Caatah, tell him 1 was tiahd, O, so 
tiahd, and that 1 fell asleep, asleep, waitin for him.’ And 
Mistus Clarrisy was dead. 


CHAPTER XLIX. 

THE JOURNEY FROM ARKANSAS. 

i i HE dawg lived on until Melissy and the chillens 
^ come home. The story of their comin home was 
like this: The great president, and liberator, Mastah Abraham 
Lincoln, set the slaves of the south free. Then the wah for 
the Union was fought to a finish, and aftah the ahmies were 
disbanded it was a common sight to see crowds of half-stahved, 
almost naked, cullud people goin along the roads, goin back, 
as they thought, to the ole home place waitin for them to re- 
turn somewhere in Kaintucky they had been sold from to be 
carried south to cotton and sugah fiels. There was now no 
pore white folks actin as constables to stop a black man in 
the big road and ask for his pass, and take it, or the black 
man, one. The cullud folks trapesin the big roads were hun - 
gry, ragged, dirty, frienless, but they were free. 

“Many of the oletime constables who had oppressed the 
black folks in the slave days had been shot in the effort, as 
confederate soldiahs, to keep them slaves, includin the one 
who carried me to the Harrodsburg calaboose. Few of the 
freed men and wimin who stopped here for a drink of 
watah and a crust, and who nevah went away emty 
handed, had othah means of travel than their feet, and 
they too, often without shoes. But one day as the chillens 
dawg was watchin for Melissy to come home, a screakin, 
wabbly wagon from faraway cotton fiels come lazin along the 
pike road. A woman’s head was stickin out through a hole 
in the wagon covah, (an ole cahpet tied onto the wagon bows 
for that purpose.) The head was on the watch for a place 
dreamed of for most a life time as home. It was a one mule 
391 


392 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

wagon. It had been said: ‘Every niggah is to have a mule.’ 

“The folks travlin with that wagon, richer than most re- 
turnin freed folks, had their own or somebody’s mule. They 
couldn’t tell who it belonged to, less to them. As the mule 
shuffled along, the screakin wagon keepin close at his heels, 
a very black man, a very dirty and very hungry man, and 
almost naked, walked behind the wagon wheels with a club 
of saplin wood in his hand. The dirty, hungry black’s busi- 
ness was to keep close up to the wheels so that when a tire 
wiggled off a wheel that happened to have a tire on, he would 
be at hand to tap it to its place again, but he not bein able at 
all times to see all the wheels at once, he, aftah hammerin a 
tire to its place, would often see anothah tire go rollin away 
into the ditch side of the road. 

“The limpy wagon mule had once been a roan. He had 
bleached in spots sence his young days to almost a dirty white. 
He was shorely ole nough to be white, roan though he had 
been befoah his soldiah sperience begun. But that mule, 
though he was ole now and reduced in fortunes, and rusted 
almost white, showed he had been in good company, and 
had had an honorable record, for he was marked C. S. A. 
The letters had been burned into his hide good and deep, so 
that the Yanks would know he wasn’t their property when it 
come to a round up between the Johnnies and themselves 
where each party in interest would take his own if to be had 
and call it square But the roundup for an equal divide nevah 
come; the confederacy got left in the tussel. That ole mule, 
pore and skinny as he was, outlived his former owner, the 
dead slave confederacy, that only lived long nough to make 
its mark on mules’ hides yet livin, but not to write its initials 
on endurin history, as bein worthy of life and recognition 
among the nations of the earth. But the worst of it was, 
that mule had, too, outlived many a brave boy, fightin for 
the southehn cross while it was lifted up, who, hungry hisself, 
when pressed by the Yanks, had begrudged him and been jess 


THE JOURNEY FROM ARKANSAS 393 

compelled to take from him the handfull of cawn in his nose- 
bag. The hahness on that mule was made of pieces of cotton 
bale rope tied togethah good and strong. 

“On the mule’s collah in raised brass lettahs was, U. S. A. 
That once fine horse collah looked to have been in all the 
battles fought, and retreats made from the first Bull Run to 
the Red Rivah campaign, sayin nothin about Vicksburg where 
they didn’t retreat when they were whipped, and so it was 
the mule graduated from the C. S. A. ahmy military school, 
only to be left by the Yanks down in Ahkinsaw to die less 
some U. S. ahmy quartah mastah scratched the marks away 
and rebranded his hide, U. S. A. so as to turn him in on set- 
tlement of his accounts. If the mule could have talked, it 
would have been interestin to know how many times he had 
been taken and retaken by his oletime ownah, the C. S. A. 
and held as long as Dixie had bread to eat and powdah to 
burn, and then for that reason, lost him again. Facts were, 
jedgin from that mule’s appearance, a jedge of mules would 
think the wah he had gone through had been fought for his 
possession and both sides had lost. 

“The mule with its onetime ownah, whose mark it wore, 
the C. S. A., ceptin in the memory of a brave, defeated people 
who are brave nough to forgit the dreadful years between 
i860 and 1865, had finally hisself been scratched off the 
world’s ahmy lists, and turned out by his last captors, the 
Yankees, to die. But unlike his first ownah, now passed 
away, who had spected so much of the world and realized so 
lill, ceptin hard knocks, though lame and pore and faded, was 
still on its feet. 

“Aftah bein dischahged from ahmy service down in Ahkin- 
saw, and refused re-enlistment by the U. S. A., the mule had 
waited round the swamps skirtin the cotton plantation where 
pickins of young cane were good, waitin until the cullud folks, 
who had picked the cotton, but were now free, could git 
ready to lite out for Kaintucky, hopin to find the place they 


594 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

had been taken from and the dear ones they had left, away 
back in the year 1848. He readily jined his desperate for- 
tunes to their bright fortunes, hopin with them to be able to 
stahve long nough to all find their way back to the land of 
their birth, for he too was from Kaintucky blue grass fiels. 

“ When 1 first see that mule and the black man at the 
wheel, it was aftah they had been on the road for weeks in 
rain and sunshine haltinly pushin on. It had been a long, 
weary, but a hopeful journey for them, but as will be seen it 
was now nearin its end. 

“Some of the wagon wheels had belonged to one kind of 
wagon, othahs were only distant relations, though still wheels, 
and certainly didn't belong to the same wagon fambly. Some 
of the wheels were almost spokeless, one of them dished in 
the wrong direction; spokes were often gone; parts of the 
felloes where the tires now were, had been lost by the way, 
while the wheels with felloes entire were tireless. The fore 
axel once hauled by two horses or more in an ahmy wagon, 
was now fitted with peeled poles for shaves. The ahmy 
wagon axel was follered by an axel that onetime belonged to 
the U. S. A. ambulance corpse. A saplin pole took the place 
of a lost reach. The thills, fore axel and hind axel, were all 
fastened togethah by cotton rope, so that when the wimin in- 
side the ambulance bed wanted to make a short turn in the 
road, the black man walkin by a hind wheel, club in hand, 
backed up against the wagon, stooped, took fast hold of the 
hind axel, starightened his legs, and so lifted his end of the 
wagon around in line with the mule. 

“The battered wagon bed had been used in many a cam- 
paign as a C. S. A. ambulance body, but it had finally been 
emptied of its groans and of its tears, they had been ended by 
death, washed away by floods of rain, or forgotton in the 
lapse of time, and in their stead where once were wounds and 
despair, was now hope. On the side of the ole ambulance 
bed was still to be seen its first ownah’s initials, C. S. A., and 


THE JOURNEY FROM ARKANSAS 395 

jess below, a soldiah’s pocket knife had cut in zigzag line: 

‘To waSHingToN or As with the mule, so with 

that once benevolent structure, the hospital ambulance body, 
there had come great and unexpected changes of fortune as 
the service of their first ownah went on to its close, but that 
past they were now engaged undah the new ownahship right- 
in the wrongs committed by the ole. They were returnin 
freed men to their homes. 

“Ovah the ole ambulance bed was drawn a covah of what 
once was some fine lady’s pretty cahpet. The blacks found it 
as they come along at the site of an ole ahmy camp down in 
Tennessee state. It one time had flowahs and leaves all ovah 
it, the cullahs had been reds and greens and black, but now 
the flowahs and leaves were tom and dirty and the greens 
and reds had faded and were worn out, some soldiah had used 
it as a roof for his horse stall, and the pore thing looked like 
it. There were big holes as well as fill ones in that cahpet. 
One of the fill holes was jess in the right place for one of the 
wimin to poke her head through to look at the green blue 
grass fiels and the Kaintucky homes as the wagon screaked 
on. The first 1 see of that wagon creepin,screakin down the 
road, a very black face was poked away out of one of the 
lill cahpet holes it fit, as if watchin for a good place for the 
mule to land. Its experiences had been varied. 

“Down in Kaintucky beside the Cumbahland rivah, 
near the place where the C. S. A. ahmy spected one 
time to whip ole Grant, but didn’t, as the wagon went along 
all by itself, and the mule, and the black man was hammerin 
a tire on one of the wheels while watchin the othah tire, the 
mule come to a chuch house side the road, and a blacksmith 
shop where one black man was hard at work hammerin on 
an anvil, and six whites were settin side the road watchin the 
black man to see if he put in full time because he was free 
and a hiahd man now. 

“The whites were tellin about places called Shilo, Fort 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


396 

Donaldson, and Perryville and what they would have done 
if they had only been in Bobby Lee’s or Bucknah’s, Johnson’s, 
or Gineral Bragg’s place, regrettin mightily, now the wah 
was all ovah and past, they bein citizens of a bordah state 
when it begun, they nevah had been quite able because of 
her neutrality to list to fight for the southern cross that had 
gleamed on so many fiels, and for which so many of their 
neighbors had died. The mute wagon creeped along past the 
blacksmith shop, the blacksmith not once darin to raise his 
head from the glowin iron on the anvil. He was dependin 
on his own work for a livin now not on Mastah’s. The next 
place where the whites were sembled to hear the news, was a 
lone grocer and a saloon in a wood. Here the mule stopped 
stock still hopin to be given a drink of watah, when the 
town’s folks surrounded the wagon, and bein told how hun- 
gry the two wimin in the mule wagon raly were, by the man 
at the wheel, they were told they were breakin law in tryin 
to make the ole mule go through their town, and, so the 
whites lifted the wagon round aftah the mule and sent it 
back, declarin to gracious, no free niggah should evah go 
through that city less workin for a white man. So the mule 
and wagon was compelled to hunt for a side road in the 
swamp to git by the town. 

“And so it was, that mule and wagon, and their load, had 
come all the way from a cotton plantation landin on the west 
bank of the Massissippi rivah in Ahkinsaw. That was where 
the bleached roan mule had been dischahged from service af- 
tah fightin through the wah tryin his best to help the Chris- 
tian slave ownahs of the South keep their property in 
slaves, and as they failed had sence worked round with the 
Yanks for his board. And too, that was where the black 
mothah and her chillens had been workin durin all the dread- 
ful years sence the steamboat left them to their fate and to 
the steamboats passin by every day, while othah blacks haht- 
broken, died and were buried where the backwatahs ovah- 


THE JOURNEY FROM ARKANSAS 397 

flowed from the cypress swamps. There the mothah and 
the chillen in that ole ahmy mule wagon waitin the years 
away for Genie’s call, had suffered, worked, but lived on. 

“The blessed day of freedom, the day prayed for and wait- 
ed for all their lives had now come. The wah had been dare 
fought out. The South had stayed with it to the last ditch 
sure nough, but could’t cross it, and was brave nough to own 
up and go home and try to raise a crop, and the mothah 
and chillens of that wagon outfit, long absent from 
home, were now free to return. Free to search the wide 
world ovah for the fathah who had been taken by his mastah 
to the Mexican wah, and who sence that time they had not 
heard from, nor seen, less the mothah as she thought, see him 
among the white soldiahs on a steamboat the very day she 
landed with her chillens brought there towork from what was 
known as the uppah place on the Ahkinsaw rivah, where 
they had been workin for months past. 

“The mothah and her chillens now free, walked down 
the grassy lane to the cotton landin one Sunday, to 
see a steamboat there. There they were told by a 
white man, a passenger on the boat, that Kaintucky could be 
reached by crossin the rivah and follerin the big roads goin up 
the rivah. 

“They were told that thousands of black people were leav- 
inthe South goin back North to their ole time homes. So, 
nevah hopin to see nough money to pay the steamboat for 
takin them home, right there they determined to cross that 
rivah soon as they could git ovah there, and to walk back to 
their Kaintucky home. 

“So it was they worked for the ownah of the plantation 
and raised a crop of cotton, for the share of it he would 
let them have, and aftah payin him in nice white cotton for 
the bacon and the cawn meal they had eat durin the year 
spent raisin the crop, he let them have the old ahmy axels 
and the ambulance bed, that laid by the back swamp, ropes 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


398 

nough for the mule’s hahness and all the ole wheels they 
found on the plantation they could use, the horse collah and 
some more bacon and cawn meal. 

“They worked on Sundays choppin wood to sell to 
the steamboats and one day, aftah workin three days 
crossin people ovah the rivah for the use of the ferry boat, 
rowin ovah every watah drop themselves, for the whites 
wouldn’t work, they at last ferried the mule and their wagon 
across the Massissippi, and for the first time stood on its 
east side, aftah seventeen years of bondage in Ahkinsaw. 

“The freed people once across the floods that bore them 
from their homes in the long ago, had now only to cross the 
states of Massissippi, Tennessee and the most of their own 
state, Kaintucky, to be at home. So lookin back across the 
stream to the plantation landin where mothah once see the 
soldiahs goin home from the Mexican wah and heard the bu- 
gle blow when her chillens were yet small, the released blacks 
kissed their Ahkinsaw home good by forevah, throwin the 
kisses across the great yallah rivah from their fingah tips, 
feelin as they told me when they come home, a thrill of sor- 
row on leavin so many ole fiel companions there to work 
their years away in the cotton rows, few knowin where their 
mothahs, long dead, once with them sold to go South, had 
brought them from. So now though freed, not knowin 
where to go to escape slave conditions. 

“But regrets at the partin from friens who had helped 
them bear their burdens, in the years passed among the cotton 
rows, must not stop their goin away in search of husband 
and fathah. 

“So the wimin cryin for the dear ones left behind them, 
climbed into the wagon their hands had built from scraps 
found about the Ahkinsaw plantation, and dried their tears as 
they remembahd the story of the long lost Genie and how 
some day she was to call them from bondage. 

“That time had come. They had not heard her voice it 


THE JOURNEY FROM ARKANSAS 399 

was true, but that she had called they knode, because they 
were free! Free to stay, free to go. They would goto fath- 
ah and home. The home and fathah the chillen could not 
remembah, it had been so many years sence they were both 
lost to them. 

“So the black man, in rags, hungry, barefooted, trudged on , 
and on, beside the wagon, for it was a wagon, as with its load 
of mothah and sistah it follered the rusted mule until the 
hahness would break, or the wheels stick fast in the deep 
mud, or the tires, they only had two, run off the wheels in 
the dry and parched, dusty roads. 

“The blacks and roan traveled for many days through the 
rich sandy bottom lands of the Massissippi country, inquirin 
of everybody they met, white or black, who would talk to 
them atall, about the road to Harrodsburg, Kaintucky, for the 
mothah still remembahd that place. But they nevah would 
have found the way through Massissippi and Tennessee but 
for the soldiahs in blue they met in the country towns waitin 
for orders to go home themselves. The blacks they met 
were anxious to pint the way had they known it, but they 
only knode their neighborhoods. Many of the whites 
wouldn’t notice them atall! Often they would stop at some 
ole-time wagon train ampin place used durin the wah, be- 
cause near watah and wood, and the wimin would have a fiah 
smokin ready to roast a potato if they could only git one to 
roast. The mule would be tied where he could nip grass, 
when some great cose voice would ordah them to movo on, 
swearin, no free niggah should camp side the road on, his 
place, no how, and so, placin the rope hahness on the mule, 
while the white man swore and watched, they would move 
away. Often a white would come to the camp and aftah 
lookin all ovah the mule would claim it as taken from his 
place by the Yanks, and branded C. S. A. by them, thinkin 
he wouldn’t know him, set a price on the mule he would take, 
only leavin him with the blacks when he found they hadn’t 


400 MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 

a cent of money to pay with, and were so hungry it wouldn’t 
pay him to give them work with the mule up as a price for 
their labor and feed them till he was worked out; and then, 
the mule was as blind as a bat in one eye anyway. So the 
mule was left with the blacks to be theirs if they moved on. 
They had gone on for many weeks, workin for days in the 
hills for whites for the use of ferry boats to cross rivahs in 
the bottom lands, and to redeem their mule when claimed. It 
seemed the country was all hills or rivahs, and the further 
they traveled the higher ferry chahges were. When they 
did find work they found the white man had but lill to eat , 
to pay with, so they hungahd on in blisterin heat, soaky 
rains, cold, always hungry, afraid to meet crowds of whites 
on the road and watchin to dodge their stones and their in- 
sults when they did meet them. 

“When one day, when almost worn out, they met a black 
man who told them they were shorely in Kaintucky, sence 
they ferried a rivah way back at Fote Donaldson where 
Grant licked Buckner. That the rivah they crossed a week 
ago was Green rivah where Buell didn’t whip Bragg, and the 
last one come ovah, where they had worked so many days 
choppin wood to pay for the crossin and to save the mule, 
was Salt rivah. That they were now out in the country back 
of Louisville, which town the mothah now remembahd her 
husband’s horse company went to from the toll gate, when on 
its way to Mexico. So she knode she was nearin what was 
once home. 

“The black man kept them three days in his fambly, then 
they moved on. Aftah some more days of travel and hun- 
gah they stopped at a cross roads stoah. The stoah man was 
sitten smokin on his horse block. He said cawn meal was 
hard to git, and as they had no money they couldnt git it of 
him. It seemed to him, he said, ‘every cullud man and 
woman once sold for twice their worth, to go south, are now 
comin back to git that money, and as the country had been 


THE JOURNEY FROM ARKANSAS 401 

abolitionized it seemed Kaintucky would have to stand it best 
she could, for they wasn't worth a dollah a head any more.' 

“He said he had no work for them and but lill to eat his- 
self, so they were at liberty to go on. As the wagon moved 
away, the man on the horse block said to the man by the 
wheel: M reckon you might git work at Stillery Hill, at the 
stillery, they're runnin now and want wood.' And so it was, 
day aftah day, when the pore blacks asked, 'how far is it to 
Stillery Hiir the reply would be: ‘Well, 1 reckon the Hill 
isn't a mighty sight away.' So the hungry days for mule and 
drivahs went by beggin among the pore blacks for bread. 
Stoppin to let the mule pick grass, often to be driven away 
by the man who lived in the log house in the clearin. Hur- 
ry in through toll gates on the pike roads, as the quickest 
way to be rid of, they went, stahvin most, but happy, for 
they were nearin what once was home. 

“When the wagon stahted from Ahkinsaw there were two 
wimin, one black, man and a mule in the company. When 
the mule stopped at Stillery Hill and refused to budge further, 
by the wagon's side stood a black woman wearin a sloutched 
ahmy hat. Undah the wide brimmed hat was a wealth of 
gray hair and a very black face, but not lookin so very ole, 
though there were many wrinkles cut into that earnest, de- 
termined face; that hungry, anxious face. A ragged gray in- 
fantry coat buttoned with pegs of wood, and one lone C. S. A. 
button fassened the ole coat about the fohm wearin it. The 
bright cloth marks on the sleeves showed where the chev- 
roons had been removed from, when the days of glory or a 
trench, were ovah. A very short skirt of heavy hemp cotton 
balin stuff, as worn on Ahkinsaw plantations by the wimin, 
hung down ovah torn and once light blue trousahs, then there 
were the high legged cavalry boots, the spurs gone, the toes 
worn away, and the breaks stuffed with rags. That wasMe- 
lissy herself. She had been carried with her chillens to Ah- 
kinsaw and was bringin them back, searchin for home and 
for friens. 


402 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


“The woman who stood in the road beside her mothah, 
was dressed, let me see, how was she dressed! There was a 
gray soldiah cap on her head. The cap was tied about by a 
long yallah cord, its once bright threads of gold now rusted 
and browned. You’d hardly think it at one time was looped 
as an ornament on the bosom of a brave rebel soldiah leader, 
to be torn from his breast when dead on a fiel of battle only 
to be lost in a swamp by the taker to be found by the negress 
who wore it in her search for the freedom the dead man would 
have denied her if alive. From the ends of the yallah cord 
hung at the woman’s right shouldah, twotossels, one of them 
tied about with faded red ribbon formed into a badly crump- 
led bow. The ribbon had been carried by her mothah to 
Ahkinsaw, O, so many years before and carefully treasured 
durin all the long years of her bondage as a lone reminder of 
a weddin day, of a white dress, and slippahs, of a troth then 
pledged and evah kept! The ole gray cap on the woman’s 
head, as though in defiance of all traducers of its unfortunate 
past where brass lettahs once had been on its front, but now 
torn away, in the original gray of the cloth bright and fresh, 
still displayed to all beholders the lettahs, C. S. A. 

“The worn and faded cap, its once black band now a brown, 
had been found at a one-time soldiah camp in Tennessee by 
a white man, and the woman and her brothah had worked a 
long hot day choppin wood as the price of it. Then there 
was a long-skirted, blue cavalry ovahcoat buttoned all the way 
up to the woman’s chin. The coat still had a wide cape, rag- 
ged and faded. One side of the ole coat’s skirt was all torn 
away. As the woman had no more ribbon, the coat was 
fassened about her waist by a strong hemp balin rope. 
The left ahni of the coat was frayed away, gone, showin a jet 
black ahm to the elbow. There was at least one trouser leg 
of gray cloth left, or what had once been gray cloth. The 
trouser leg was on the side of the coat that had lost its share 
of the skirt. Below the trouser leg, as also the remnant of 


THE JOURNEY FROM ARKANSAS 403 

coat skirt, were ahmy shoes, browned, gapped, what in their 
day had been regulation ahmy shoes. They looked now as 
though they had tramped the wonld-be confedrit territory 
across, then shed from a dead soldiah’s feet, at his final settle- 
ment with an ahmy surgeon for his services rendered in the 
ahmies of earth. And aftah the man's departure from life 
thrown into a swamp as castaways, where the black people 
had found them, and bein so much better than anything they 
had had for years, adopted them joyfully. That, all, was 
my lost daughtah Clarrisy as she looked when she come home. 
The man at the wheel she called brothah was the raggedest 
black man 1 had seen sence my visit to the Harrodsburg cala- 
boose, the day its doah closed behind me. 

“Somewhere along the road from Ahkinsaw the man had 
chopped wood for a boss while the wimin worked in his fiel 
for what they could find to eat among his negro hands. Aftah 
the work was done, and what was left of a pair of the bosses 
ole worn out buttahnut pantaloons, and lookin from behind 
him that wasn't so very much. He had no shirt, but wore 
an ahtilery jacket. No hat, his bare feet showin their full 
size on the hard road. He had a fine featured, very black 
face, almost the picchah of Clarrisy's, with great white eye 
balls and a wealth of teeth of the same kind. A giant in 
strength. This was the black man who had walked every 
step of the way through rain and sunshine from the crossin 
of the Massissippi rivah, to Stillery Hill. 

“The wimin slid out of the wagon to the ground, at 
the hill top. They all deserted the mule and were tryin 
to find a path through the tall briah bushes growin in what 
the mothah said was once a bury in ground, near an ole tum- 
ble down chuch, that stood near by, almost hidden by the 
black smoke from a stillery chimbly at the foot of a hill. 

“The black folks were lookin for a lill grave and a great 
oak tree they remembahd the grave was dug beside. They 
couldn't fine the tree, it had long ago been cut down for fiah 


404 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


wood for the stillery down at the foot of the hill. So where 
was Genie's grave? 

“The briah bushes were a mat everywhere. Had the sweet 
chile risen to call Melissy and the chillen's from the grasp 
of slavery? Should they look further for the grave? Know- 
in the chillen were very hungry and hopin to find some help 
at the ole Jackson toll gate now not far away, the mothah 
had almost eluded to go on, trustin she might find her lost 
husband yet unmarried to anothah, and waitin his lifetime for 
her to come to him, when on tryin to push her way out of 
the briah bushes that were about her, she stummeled into a 
long sunken place in the ground. It was a grave She count- 
ed six of the pits in the ground. They were all grown full 
of briahs. Grocery Dobbins had lost six wives, she remem- 
bahd, one of them dyin about the time Genie went home to 
heaven. Here then was the long row of Grocery Dobbin's 
wives all gone on before him. She stopped to count the 
sunken pits. One, two, three, foah five, six, then turnin 
away she had gone but a few steps trampin down the tall 
berry canes, to at last find rank grass on a bed of rich black 
earth, evidently the remains of a tree stump, when on push- 
in the grass aside, she found a wee sink, grassed to its round- 
ed bottom, but never a thorn growin there. 

“We have visited that grave many times sence Melissy 
come home. It can now be easily found, a pretty white stone 
marks the place, with the word ‘Genie' cut deep in its surface, 
where as mothah knelt that day, there come into her soul a 
whispah that said: ‘They heard my call and are free.' 

“The black wimin climbed into the ole wagon, it went 
screaikn, wabblin down Stillery Hill, the black man even 
havin to push it ovah the stones. At the stillery, a numbah 
of ridin horses were hitched to posts about the mill,a sound of 
singin and laftah come from the mash room, as of ole. A 
white man standin outside the drinkin room doah, seein the 
wagon with the black faces inside and the man at the wheel. 


THE JOURNEY FROM ARKANSAS 


405 


motionin to the comers, cried aftah them: 

‘“Go right ahead now, pint up the road. Go on/ 

“Tired, hungry, an almost blind mule dragged hisself along 
the pike road, and nearly blind though he was, stopped at 
last where at one time was a white gate to a shady lane leadin 
to a mansion house. But the gate wasn't there when the 
mule stopped. There were no traces of a gate. There were 
some broken fence boards and some poles where used to be 
bars, where befoah time was a white gate. 

“The mule had stopped at a lane bordahd by stumps of ole 
locust trees. A few of the stumps had shot up sprouts that 
were still standin, ceptin where they in turn had rotted away, 
fallen; and their trunks and limbs were strewed on the ground. 
Stid of the fine mansion house of the Betsy Jackson days, a 
rusty, worn ole house now stood at the othah end of what 
the black woman drivin the mule knode as Locust Tree Lane 
though the trees there when she was a girl were gone and 
trees of othah kinds had taken their places. 

“When the mule stopped at the lane, a very black face, 
and a very gray head were pushed out of the hole in thecah- 
pet covah of the wagon. It was Melissy. She has many 
times sence told me the story. From the wagon she see that 
the tall cedahs once about the big house had all been cut away. 
The house, or what was left uf it, was there but showin its 
age by its fallen chimbley tops, broken windahs, and hangin 
cornice boards. The pretty white fence she remembahd as 
skirtin the once cedah shaded lawn, was not to be seen atall. 
Ahead of the wagon on the pike was the ole-time Jackson 
toll gate bar still crossin the road. Out in the lot were the 
remains of what was once a fill log house and there was a pile 
of chimbly stones, some logs, and she seemed again to see 
Minstah Samuel, his caht, its load, and thechillen'syallah dawg 
drive up to the toll gate as in the long ago. 


CHAPTER L. 

THE RETURN TO THE TOLL GATE. 


( k \ X / *TH not a word spoken to him the mule now 
VV moved on as though he would break into a run. 
The shahp voice of the toll taker stopped him, howevah, 
wagon and all, Melissy thought m the very tracks 
made by the Ministah’s mule, O, so many years ago! As 
mothah and Clarrisy were climbin out from undah the wagon 
covah to the ground mothah happy cause she was almost 
home. Brothah, who by that time had come up with the 
team with a wagon tire that had rolled into the road ditch as 
the wagon left the lane, was holdin the mule good and fast. 
By that time too, the toll gate woman, with a very red face, 
elbows akimbo, bare, freckled ahms, and as red a head, ready 
to take the toll, cried out as she took in the scene: ‘Well, pon 
me wurred, it do almost take me breath intirely! May the 
good saints in hiven save us! Begorry! av all the free nag- 
ger outfits runnin away from the confiderit gintlemen beyant, 
since the naggers were stolen from thim be the Yanks, and 
goin by an this pike road from the cotton fiels, this wan 
bates thim all intirely! Ha! ha! ha! ha! for the life av me! 
did 1 iver.? Ha! ha! ha! 

‘“Let go that mule’s head, ye dorty, ragged thing. Dhrive 
up furninct me hand and pay the toll. Come now, be quick 
ye black scarecrows. The sight uf yeze would scare onny 
horred away, come now, and thin be gittin out av this. Be- 
hoky! Theres still some dacent peaple who ride the pike 
roads if the Yanks did whip the gintlemen from Kaintucky, 
and stole their naggers, who don’t want to mate the likes av 
yeze, there is. If yeze havn’t onny smooth bits, give me 
406 


THE RETURN TO THE TOLL GATE 


407 


pinnies in me hand, for its me duty He do, begorry!’ 

“By that time the black wimin were standin ahmy hat and 
cap in hand bowin to the white lady, still hopin she would 
give them bread, while brothah remembahin what mothah 
had told him of the Jackson toll gate, in the years gone by 
while in Ahkinsaw, stood, his eyes wide open, seein every- 
thing ready to obey, and very hungry, and sistah too, re- 
membahin what mothah said about the cabin in the toll house 
yahd, looked out in the lot to see it, findin only a few logs 
in a pile where once a house had stood, but still showin the 
square of the room where Genie died. All that was left of 
the chi.mbley the stah shone down, and the hearth where the 
crickets used to sing, was a pile of rough limestone rock. 

“Melissy was now close to the toll taker, who, as 
she held out her hand for the toll went on to say, in a voice 
so determined and shrill the mule started from fright at the 
sound: 

‘“Dont onny av yeze lousy dorty things come close till 
me! Keep yersels away, at arrums lingth, and pay the toll!’ 
The blacks had not a cent of money. They could hahdly re- 
membah when they had seen so much coin as the toll 
amounted to. They had nothin but the mule, the wagon 
and their soldiah cloze. They offered to do any work the 
woman would give them to do, to do anything but turnback. 

“There was no place they could go in that direction, they 
knew of, but the cotton rows on the plantation in Ahkinsaw. 
They only wanted some cold cawn bread, or a potato, they once 
were used to them, in fact anything they could eat, if only an 
ear of cawn from a crib for they were stahvin and could 
hahdly go any further without help. 

“They begged the Irish woman to allow them to tie the 
blind mule on the close nipped grass side the pike road, while 
theyall chopped wood for a bite, only a bite to eat. But the 
toll gate woman remembahd the instructions of the road’s 
directahs, not to talk to niggahs, nor to allow them to stop. 


408 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


threw back her head as she said: ‘Yere the raggedest, dorty- 
est crowd av all the comin back freed niggah contrabands that 
have pressed this blissed pike road with fate bare and bladin 
since Applepotomax tree was cut down be the Yanks, yeze 
are. The divil will take ould Gineral Grant, he will, unlis 
the ould wood chopper moves an his wurruks, and av coorse 
takes him first, for phat the Gineral done that day till fightin 
Bobby Lee, and the freein av the likes av yeze. Why av 
coorse yeze are hungry! 

“‘Bagorry 1 niver see a nagger that wasn’t hungry! Yeze 
could ate a hin and her speckled chicks ivery wan av thim off 
the nist! Be hoky yeze havnt got the whites to fade yeze 
and pay the doctah’s bills now yeze free, have yeze.^ 

‘“Why av coorse yeze havn’t a cint to pay the walkin toll 
wid nor for the mule ather, but yeze would wurruk, thin yeze 
would ate Tiddy out av house and home and him breakin 
schtone an the pike road at Stillery Hill beyant, behoky. 
And thered be not a bateavonnythingwarrum or cowld in the 
pot for him to ate whin he comes trampin home at all.’ 

“As the woman stopped talkin she swung the toll gate bar 
wide open ready for the travelers to go through, and seein 
them hesitate to go she cried out, motioninthem on: ‘Go an 
now, trapse! be out av this, begorry, and mind, dont be shuf- 
flin yere shoe tops along under yere fate comin back to both- 
er a Christian woman left all alone now whin Tiddy’s at 
wurruk an the pike since Baby Bridget died, bliss God for 
the beravement, for He knows bist, intirely, but I dunno, O, 
1 dunno! And me to take toll while its own father Tiddy 
breaks schtone for gintlemen to ride over. But ha! ha! ha! 
For the love av Goodness, begorry, look at the summer 
schtyles galore, yere wearin, but not a hate av burrud wings, 
red roses, and all that. And thin see the tossels av goold 
danglin down from some poor did codfid’s ould gray cap wid 
an ould rid ribbon bow tied fast toot, while the right owner 
av it all is slapin in a trinch the Yankee souldiers, bad zest to 


THE RETURN TO THE TOLL GATE 409 

thim, dug wid their baynets to dump a did body in, and his 
own mither, or a lone wife wid her baby I dunno, or his bist 
gurrul, wan, waits at home, O, God help, now still waitin 
and the war over, O, the broken hearts, waitin, waitin. Ah, 
may the saints help the mithers and the swatehearts av the 
North, too, 1 was tellin Tiddy whin ould Magoffin wanted 
him to list to fight fer the state av Kaintucky, to cape her 
neutral, that fightin was only murther, and that it was bul- 
lets, bullets, bullets galore, and not onny prayers the Kain- 
tucky gintlemen would nade whin they all run up agin the 
Yanks’ rifle pits beside their roads and yeze can now see, they 
hadn’t much av ather, whin the time come, and wan was not 
a bate better nor the ither, for they both failed, intirely, 
and the Yank’s kept right on shootin as if God was with 
thim all the way along. 

“And now here’s the very thing the Kaintucky gintlemen 
sent all the pore whites to fight agin, and stayed at home 
thimselves and prayed agin. 

‘“The pike roads are filled wid free naggers, trapsin, with 
not a cint in their pockets at all, but almost as monny rags 
an their backs as whin they they were sold an the protestant 
auction blocks for hapes av silver and goold, but they’ll 
niver have a gintleman’s pass in their pockets onny more. 
But niver moind the pass, go an, go an.’ 

“Mothah started to go, with brothah now leadin the mule. 
When the Irish woman seein she was to be rid of the ill 
dressed, dirty, hungry blacks at once and wantin to have the 
very last word, Irish woman like, as her company was goin 
away, cried out: ‘Well the blissed saints in hiven above, tell 
me before yeze do go intirely niver to come back to bother 
onny more, where did yeze all come from wid this ould 
blissed C. S. A. airmy mule, and the horrid wagon wid this 
ould floore cahpet to put yere bids out av.?’ Mothah, in her 
soff voice said: ‘These are my twin chillens, we’re all the 
way from Ahkinsaw, we are. We were sold from this place 


410 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


to go there. O, it was so many long years ago when my 
chillens were small. Weall went away walkin in the dust of 
the road from this house, we did.’ By that time the toll gate 
woman remembahd she had been told by the directahs not to 
allow any niggahs travelin the road to stop at the toll house 
for any length of time, but to send them on, to take the toll 
if she could, but send them away, so she cried out: ‘Well, 
av all the lies 1 iver heard in all me borren days, they bate 
all. Shure the’blacks are all alike, liars. Yeze wance collided 
toll at this very gate did yeze, and yeze as black thin as now 
av coorse, and this was Kaintucky.^ Git away wid yeze, now, 
be off. I’ll have no more av it. A naggar keep a toll gate! 
Ha! Ha! Ha!’ 

“Mothah was about to move on when she see the black 
boy holdin onto a wheel of the wagon as if he would fall. 
Knowin he was sick from hungah, O, how that mothah beg- 
ged the Irish woman for bread, not for herself, but for a crust 
of cawn bread for him, but she was refused. ‘Would 1 be 
givin me auld mon’s bread away and him breakin schtone 
an the pike road for the confident blacks to be walkin an and 
not a cint to pay wid,’ she cried out. 

“Mothah was now compelled to go hungrily on, hopin to 
be strong nough to git to the ole Maashall house, though 
strangahs might be livin there now, and they, too, might 
drive them away. But before goin she wanted to see the 
room Genie was laid out in. So she begged to be allowed to 
jess peep in where she last see the sweet lost face of the dead 
chile. For her own reason, and not sayin a word in reply to 
mothah’s last request, the Irish woman walked into the one 
front room of the lill house, the blacks, without any bid, goin 
in close behind her. 

“Mothah showed the Irish woman where the red pine box 
that held baby Genie’s body once set on a chair. Mothah told 
how sweet baby’s wax white face was as she lay there, and 
the fat red hand graspin the Irish woman’s apron went, apron 


THE RETURN TO THE TOLL GATE 411 

and all, to her streamin face. Mo thah said: ‘O, the once pink 
fingahs that cold and white as they lay on a still breast, held 
my only rosebud in their grasp. 

“Mothah bowed ovah the one wood chair in the corner 
where once the pine box lay and the Irish woman sobbed as 
though her haht would break. Mothah, with her coase black 
hand smoothed the tresses of golden hair she once see in that 
lill red pine box, as the pore Irish woman groaned in agony. 
Mothah kneeled down on the oak floah, and pressin her lips 
to a great oak knot kissed it. Then, still kneelin, she told of 
the chillen’s keepsake money and the smooth long bit, the 
string, and how the chillen’s keepsake money, the smooth 
long bit and the string was dumped from the stockin in a pile 
of tips, bits and coppah cents on that knot. 

“There was jess two dollahs of it without the teethin long 
bit with the string, she said, but the ovahseeah took it all to 
pay the hiah. Then raisin to her feet mothah started to go, 
but feelin so very hungry she said: ‘O, dear, kind lady, won’t 
you, for the sake of the waxy white face, and the waxy 
plump hand that onetime lay in that lill red pine box the stil- 
lery man carried out of this room undah his ahm, wont you 
give us to eat.?’ 

“Mothah had hahdly done speakin when the Irish woman, 
throwin her ahms about her neck, cried out: ‘O, Christ, 
this pore black mither is talkin about me own sweet baby girl, 
me Bridget, that was torn from me heart niver to nessel be 
me side, till it died. The black mither’s talkin about that 
cold, waxy lill face they would let lay for only one short day 
be me cheek on the pillar. O, God, 1 woke to kiss the cold 
lips but once, but they were still, they were still ! O, Christ, 
for the sake of that still cold baby face 1 bore— bore to die — 
1 will share its own fither’s crust with these pore lost souls. 
Begorry 1 will if the directahs dhrive us away an the pike 
road tomorry as pore as are the naggers today!’ 

“The toll gate woman now went about tryin to calm her- 


412 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


self and find a bite for the blacks to eat. She hurriedly looked 
in all the pots and the oven on the hearth while the mule was 
led to a bit of grass by the roadside. The mothahs tried to 
smothah their sobs as mothah told about bein sold with her 
two babies to pay racin debts; that one time in Ahkinsaw 
she thought she see her husband on a steamboat as the boat 
went away from the plantation landin, but the white ovah- 
seah who brought her from Kaintucky, drove her back to the 
mules in the lane. 

“The black folks were given a small pone of cawn bread, all 
the pore white woman had in the house, for Teddy had taken 
all the cold potatoes for his dinnah that day. But the toll 
woman put up a rag full of cawn meal unsifted for the blacks 
to take with them on the road. They each had a cup of 
warmed up rye coffee, found in the black boiler but without 
sugah or milk. Not a morsel of meat was there in the pot. 

“Finally the blacks had eat but were fuller of thankfulness 
than food. Brothah had brought the wagon to the doah, the 
blacks were ready to go away from the place they had once 
called home, spectin to find some one at the Maashall place, 
jess beyond, who would give them some information of me. 
Mothah now stepped side the Irish woman, whose eyes were 
red from cryin, and said: ‘Only I’m black and dirty from bein 
so long on the road, without one bit of soap, and hurryin to 
git away before a directah comes and finds us here, or 1 would 
kiss you, you dear sweet soul, for your kindness to us to-day. 
You’ve spoken the only kind word we’ve heard sence we 
stopped at the black man’s house near Louisville. Dont cry, 
you pore haht broken mothah, your baby girl Bridget, long 
with Genie, is safe at home, only waitin for you she nevah 
knode on earth. Some day its sweet face will lie beside 
yours again, you dear kind soul, nevah to wake to find it has 
been taken away from you. If 1 do find my husband, Josiah 
Maashall, I’ll come back to you, and, ‘What did yeze say,’ 
cried the toll gate woman, ‘did yeze say Josiah Maashall.? 


THE RETURN TO THE TOLL GATE 413 

For the love av the Virgin Mither av God, didyeze say Josiah 
Maashall? Is he youze husband, and the father av these 
people intirely? Well did I iver? And youze are his lost peo- 
ple heze bin waitin and waitin for so long, begorry is that so? 
Do yeze mane the black mon that took sich good care av his 
pore crazy mistress durin all her lifetime and was given the 
great Maashall place bey ant for his goodness till her? Why 
av coorse yeze do! Why, the auld black man, that same Jo- 
siah Maashall has been waitin for yeze all the long, long 
years past and gone, he has. Now dont yeze go away arry 
step further till yeze rested, and Tiddy comes thrampin home 
to help yeze keep the tires an the wagon wheels, he'll be only 
too glad to help yeze down to the auld wather mill dam, 
where yeze will find yeze auldtime husband and that same 
auld dawg that I heard time and agin welcomed himsilf home 
from the Mixican war wan mornin before Tiddy was awake. 

“'We have plinty av soft soap in the crock to wash wid. 
Now dont yeze go, there's a few petaties in the patch to dig, 
some male in the bag, and the dirictahs av the pike can go to 
the divil intirely. Dont go.' By that time the travelers were 
climbin into the wagon. They wouldn't stay atall now! 
They felt no hunger. The black boy had taken his place at 
the wheel, club in hand and all were shoutin for joy, but the 
Irish woman I had known for years, went on talkin: 

“'Josiah Maashall, him that lives down where the auld 
wather mill used to be before the Yanks burrened it intirely, 
they did. But av coorse yeze niver knode that. Well, be- 
hoky did I iver! Phat will Tiddy, me own man, be thinkin 
av that? Josiah Maashall has been mighty good till Tiddy, 
givin him down wood for the takin, and fother for the cow, 
and a chance to wurruk ditchin and takin his pay in corrun 
for the pig in the pin. Shure we know Josiah Maashall. 
He has tould me how until a shipment of naggers was made 
up, his wife and chillens wint thrampin in the dust av the pike 
to jail at Harrodsburg, bought from the Yankee gintleman 


414 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


from Maine be a Kunnul from Ahkinsaw. 1 only wish the 
house had a bite in it fit for yeze to ate, but Tiddy had hard 
pickin himsilf the day, and the pig in the pins not kilt, the 
cow’s dry altogither, and the chickens are all away in the 
Maashall fields makin their own livin, if they get it. Why, 
pon me wurrud the schtyle av yeze hats sent so very bad at 
all. You pore, dorty, ragged, hungry, confidrit contrabands! 
Why bliss youze hahts, dontbe schtandin still onnymore,but 
go an to yeze own home, be quick! Youze ould yallah dawg 
has been waitin and cryin for yeze since youalls were sold to 
go away from this same toll house, he has, good luck to him 
now, he’ll be waitin to set his ould eyes an yeze, and him 
layin in the middle av the road. God bliss yeze go an.’ 

“As the wagon wabbled away, and mothah and Clarrisy 
were lookin from a cahpet hole behind them, they see a man 
comin horse back canterin down the road and the toll woman 
cried aftah them: ‘Here comes a directah to look into the 
money till! I’ll tell him Josiah Maashall will pay yeze toll, 
behoky! Yere not beggars at all. Now dont go in Walnut 
Tree Lane, go an to the Spillman house beyant. To think! 
that pore yallah dawg that’s waitin for yeze, and him so hun- 
gry, begged me for a mouthful to ate, so monny cowld win- 
ter days in the past years and me kickin him away from the 
back door and niver knowin he was yere own. If the saints 
will forgive me this wan time, begorry. I’ll share Tiddy’s last 
crust av corrun pone wid the nixt hungry dawg that whines 
at me kitchen door, I will. Go an now, go an!’ 


CHAPTER LI. 

REUNITED. 

& i Y story is now soon told. On past the Maashall 
AVI homestead at the Walnut Tree Lane went the 
Ahkinsaw wagon. On down the turn pike road, every foot 
of it well known to Melissy in her young days. With hahts 
full of happiness and anxiety the travelers come on. 1 was 
settin in my chair in the shade of the front porch, the chillen^s 
yallah dawg was restin beside me. I often rested there, and it 
was a common thing to have footsore, tired black folks stop 
at the frunt gate where your rigirnent marched in the night 
the ole watah mill was burned. So, though I heard a screaky 
wagon comin down the road, 1 paid lill tention to it till the 
dawg woke up quick and as quick as he was wide awake 
stahted for the road. He went out to meet a wabbly wagon, 
cahpet covahd, loaded with black folks. As 1 was about to 
drop off to sleep again, I see the wagon was drawn by one 
mule, and then I must have slept, for the sight of a mule 
wagon passin was nothin new. I was sleepy, the mule wagon 
had no interest for me. But seems aftah while 1 heard the 
yallah dawg wheeze and wheeze, loud as he could in them 
days, and lookin see he had stahted for the wabbly wagon all 
right, but had lain down in the dust to rest hisself before he 
got to it, and there he lay and howled. 

'The mule had stopped jess as he got to the dawg, and if 
you'd seen that mule bow his head and flop his ears, you’d 
have knode he was some relation to the dawg that had wait- 
ed so many years for the fambly to come home. A ragged 
black man that stood side a wagon wheel now went to the 
415 


416 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


dawg and kneelin side him in the dust of the road hugged him 
in his ahms right there. Then a black woman 1 had noticed 
lookin out of a hole in the cahpet covah jumped out of the 
wagon to the dusty road, and soon the man and the dawg 
and the woman were all mixed up togethah, the woman cry- 
in and the dawg fondlin her. 

“It was hard to tell which was which, the man, the dawg, 
or the woman, ceptin for the wheezy barks, and the cryin, 
and shoutin. Then anothah woman jumped from the wagon, 
and as she threw up her hands, her soldiah hat fell into the 
dust of the road, and 1 didn’t know what was goin on out 
there till the gray headed, black woman shouted; ‘My hus- 
band! My husband! Josiah! Josiah!’ 1 hardly had time to git 
out of that ole ahm cheer Kunnel Maashall died in in his li- 
brary room when he read the lettah tellin of the death of his 
only son at Palo Alto, that 1 allers napped in summah aftah- 
noons, when a woman pusson dressed in all the ole soldiah 
cloze the confedi and Yanks had left seemed to me, piled 
right down on me, cryin out: ‘Josiah! Josiah!’ It was my 
lost wife Melissy! Melissy and the chillens had come home. 
It would be impossible for me to describe that home comin 
further. 

“ Aftah many hours of loyin conversation, cryin, talkin about 
ole times, explainin, tellin of the ole friens now long dead, 
and of the final loss of Betsy Quigley’s wealth, the good 
marriage of her only daughtah, and that Squiah Quigley long 
ago disappeared; shudderin because of the sorrows of the dark, 
dark, days, now gone; cryin because of Melissy and the chil- 
lens’ confinement in the Harrodsburg calaboose among the 
human animals, by the Kunnel from Ahkinsaw, the gemmel- 
man who refused to buy mothah ceptin her baby was by her 
side; the journey to Ahkinsaw; the sound of that ole battered 
hohn at the cotton landin; the woman’s mad rush to the rivah 
bank, and alas, the goin away of the steamboat. 


REUNITED 


417 


‘'Aftah all the talkin, the greetins, of mothah, ‘fathah, and 
their now grown chillens, and the fondlin of that ole yallah 
dawg, now seemin to have grown young again, for he was 
everywhere at once, seemed like. — Aftah all that, and when 
all had been cried ovah again and again, and the Ahkinsaw re- 
lations had been dressed nice and. clean, from the ole-time 
fambly drawers and trunks once belongin to the Maashalls 
and Spillmans, weall, aftah sendin a fine suppah to the friens 
at the toll gate house, for the Irish woman and Teddy, as they 
sent us word they couldn't come that day; as the rays of a 
fast settin sun were lingerin on the seat of the Palo Alto rock- 
in cheer, in which Kunnel Maashall died, now allers waitin 
for me out on the porch, were reunited. 


CHAPTER LIl. 

A SECOND INFAIR AND DEATH. 

£ £ ^T'HE black people remainin on the Maashall and the 
A Spillman places, come in from the fiels on hearin 
Melissy and the chillens had come home, and too, many of 
the neighbor folks called to rejoice with us. So many, in 
fact, there was nothin but standin room on the ground floah 
of the house. 

“It seems while Melissy and the chillens were dressin in 
nice clean cloze and the house was full of song and shouts of 
joy because the absent had come home, the ole and the young 
wimin of the place, not waitin on the guests from Ahkinsaw, 
were invitin their friens and neighbors all, to come to the in- 
fair party, and that when they come they all turned in and 
helped with the preparations, so there were plenty of hands 
to do the work and when the tables were set, they groaned 
undah their burdens of good things, and with china and cut 
glass left by the Maashalls through Mistus Clarrisy to me. It 
was all Melissy’s now. 

“1 nevah knode before how many nice things a dozen ole 
black wimin cooks, helped by as many young girls of their 
own trainin, could scrape togethah in one half day, where 
turkeys, fat pigs and chickens were plenty, and to be had, as 
turkeys used to be had in slave days in Kaintucky, for the 
takin. We had sold the tobacco crop, and the store room was 
filled with groceries, so that we happened to have plenty for 
all who had come to rejoice with us, cludin anothah crowd of 
pore, dirty, hungry, blacks, men, wimin and chillens, searchin 
for their homes, and who stopped at an invitation given them 
to eat, and help us rejoice, only to go away loaded with food. 

418 


A SECOND INFAIR AND DEATH 419 

“The infair tables were dressed with the finest of the ole- 
time house linens left aftah the long years of wear and sor- 
row, now passed. Some of the table cloths and napkins and 
plate covahs showed by their marks of fine needle work they 
had been used at anothah infair in this ole house, O, so many 
years before. 

“We were finally seated at the table. 1 set at the head of 
it, as the ole wimin said, ‘bein the bridegroom,’ Melissy set 
next at my right, at the cornah. John Clay Maashall, the 
man that hammered the wagon tires from Ahkinsaw to the 
ole Jackson toll gate, was at Melissy’s right. Miss Clarrisy 
Maashall, her C. S. A. soldiah cap taken away, her blue cav- 
alry coat with only one skirt, gone, and instead now clothed 
in a quick made ovah white linen, lace ruffled dress, once be- 
longin to sweet Clarrisy Maashall, who visited earth with 
the crocus blooms one springtime in the snow, and worn by 
her when she was at school. A dress of pure white it was, 
only it had been laid away so long. Only for that it was 
pure white, was that dress of my lost Mistress. It was all the 
white dress we could find. 

“The white dress Mistus Clarrisy Spillman had on when 
her husband was killed in the ole watah mill, had, with her, 
perished long ago. She had kissed it and fondled it until the 
pore thing was like her own sweet self, worn out. 

“Clarrisy had put away the C. S. A. cap, but that ole rib. 
bon bow, jess as mothah had kept it through all the years of 
her bondage in the cotton rows, was pinned to the girl’s one- 
time white dress among the yallered laces. Clarrisy had a seat 
at table to my left. 

“John Clay had on some of my ole cloze, all much too 
small for him but he had gone barefooted so long in the Ah- 
kinsaw cotton rows and on the long walk from its swamps 
home, he couldn’t wear shoes. So while he wore a white 
shirt found tucked away in a drawer that was so ole it almost 
fell to pieces, and an ole yallah standin collah, he was bare- 


420 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


footed. He was a great strong man, but was so ovahcome 
he leaned hard, as I noticed, on his now grayhaired, wrinkled 
faced, stoop shouldered, toil worn mothah. The cotton fiels 
and steamboat wood yahds work had left their mark on her. 
Through the toil marks of the years, her face beamed with 
happiness as she lovingly supported her son. 

“The house wimin knode mothah when she worked at the 
toll gate house. They had divided their best things with her, 
as far as she needed. She had cried for joy until almost 
voiceless. 

“The chillen’s yallah dawg had his place at table, as in the 
long ago at the toll gate cabin. He had crawled in between 
mothah’s feet and mine and lay on the cahpet, his head restin 
on his great fat paws. Then there was silence and Melissy’s 
sweet voice, that voice of the long past years, thanked heaven 
for all that had been done for us; and that Genie’s baby voice, 
for Genie was still only a baby to her, had been heard, and 
we had all been freed at last, in ansah to baby’s call, and unit- 
ed once more to be separated now, only by death. Then the 
dawg Aunt Polley throwed into the caht, as it was goin to 
leave him behind at her house, bahked as loud as he could 
wheeze. And when mothah give thanks, for the Ahkinsaw 
Kunnel was still on prayin grounds, and intercedin terms, 
though now gittin very ole, and the bottomless pit very 
dangersome, the yallah dawg, between the feet undah the ta- 
ble mighty nigh scared the neighbors from the room by his 
terrible growl. 

“Then when mothah whispahd to ouah Fathah in heaven, 
in broken voice tellin Him that weall parted one mawnin 
many years ago, when the chillens were young, in fact mere 
babes, and the dear ole yallah dawg was, too, young, parted 
at the beginnin of a great wah fought in the interests of hu- 
man slavery, in Texas and Mexico, parted to be reunited at 
last and at His own time, at the close of a far greater wah, 
that was to result in the abolition of human slavery every- 


A SECOND INFAIR AND DEATH 


421 


where, ceptin for crime committed, all in ansah to the call of 
the white babe whose memory weall so much loved, 1 felt 
the dawg among the feet on the cahpet, layin ovah on my 
feet. And aftah mothah breathed out, so very low I 
could hardly hear her voice: ‘Ouah hahts ovahflow with 
thankfulness to Thee for this hour of peace and gladness; this 
hour when the storms of life seem to have ceased to beat on 
ouah pathway; this hour of hope for the down trodden of 
earth. Amen.’ 

“I leaned tords mothah to kiss her wet cheek, and to pat 
my ole frien, the yallah dawg’s head, noticin all the time his 
body still lay heavy on my feet. I took mothah’s great 
horny hand in my hand aftah brothah had kissed its bony 
palm, then we moved ouah seats back and togethah stooped 
that we might stroke ouah ole frien’s head as he lay undah 
the table, as we used to do when he and Genie and the chil- 
lens were all young and all so happy among the pots on the 
stone hearth at the toll house. I was hopin he would kiss 
the hand 1 offered him in mine that was home now to care 
for him, though not so soff as it used to be. 

“But the dawg who when a puppy at Aunt Polley’s house 
would have defended his girl wife mistus’ honah, and the red 
piney quilt with his own life, lill dawg as he then was could 
it have been done successfully for a slave put up for sale in 
Kaintucky's slave breedin days, was dead. 

“He who laid hisself down beside me on the toll gate cabin 
floah to die of stahvation, had lived long years afterwards, 
lived to see his fortunes once so hopless, changed for the 
good, and aftah so long a time, had died in a hahtburst of 
happiness. He lived to hear again the voice of his mistus, 
Melissy, in prayer and died ! 

“That suppah was left by Melissy, the chillens and myself 
to the friends untouched by us. That first night of the home- 
comin we buried ouah ole frien, the chillen’s yallah dawg, 
by the light of the moon, undah the trailin limbs of an apple 


422 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 


orchard tree, near the path through the grass pore Mistus 
Clarrisy, often in company with the ole dawg, pressed with 
her tired feet all night long lookin for her husband to return 
to her, durin the awful years sence the Spillman infair party. 
We laid the remains of the chillens’ yallah dawg away to the 
music of the fallin watahs near the ole watah mill dam. We 
laid him in plain sight of the white trunks of the sycamore 
trees standin by the ole mill race where your rigiment once 
camped. With full hahts we laid his head low, remembahin 
the piny quilt, the tipped kittle, the ride in Ministah Samuel’s 
caht to the toll gate house. With grief for anothah lost frien 
we buried the chillens’ yallah dog.” 


CHAPTER LIll. 

“GOOD BY, UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN.” 

T hen rising from his seat the story teller placed his arm 
about the black woman, our affable hostess, whose 
smile betokened her ever springing youth and vigor, though 
her hair was a snow white, and who had ministered to our 
comfort and happiness during all the evenings taken up in the 
telling of this story, and the old man said: 

“Gemmelmen, low me to present to youall my wife, Me- 
lissy Jackson Maashall, from Maple Tree Springs riginally, 
latah from Ahkinsaw. And, gemmelmen, this black man is 
the boy that rode in Ministah Samuel’s mule caht by the ripe 
peaches to the toll gate house, this is my son, John Clay 
Maashall. This, gemmelmen, is ouah daughtah, Clarrisy 
Maashall, whose place at her mothah’s breasts sweet Genie, 
the white baby, shared. She was her mothah’s faithful com- 
panion in the Ahkinsaw cotton fiels through all her years of 
bondage there. 

“Gemmelmen, sometime aftah the railroad is built, and you 
care to, stop off the cahs at Cedah Bridge Station, come to 
the ole Maashall house up the turn pike road near the toll 
gate. We will be mightily pleased to see youall, for thanks 
to Mistus Kunnel Maashall’s will, that will be the home of 
ouahselves and chillens while we live. 

“1 have only to add in elusion, I have told you the story of 
‘Melissy and The Chillens’ and of ‘The Ole Watah Mill,’ you- 
all know, now, why the mill was closed so many years before 
the night the Yankees burned it down. 

“So gemmelmen, thankin you for Melissy and the chillens, 
and for myself for the many pleasant evenins passed in youalls 
company, we bid you good by, until we meet again.” 

423 


424 


MELISSY AND THA CHILLENS 
FINIS. 


One of the finest structures to be seen on the great railroad 
we were engaged in building at the time we met Josiah 
Marshall and heard his story a> told in the preceding pages, 
is the steel bridge which crosses a pretty stream of clear wa- 
ter flowing between grassy fields and among towering cliffs, 
over a rock bed of hardest limestone, just up stream from 
what is now known as “Cedar Bridge Station." The bridge, 
resting on three abutments of the finest stone to be procured 
in all that section, diagonally spans the stream at the old, now 
unused, water mill dam, is one of the pretty sights from pass- 
ing car windows to be seen on that scenic road. In fact, the 
scene from the cars is one noted in the history of that coun- 
try. 

There are few passengers on the many trains on that road 
who fail to avail themselves, if permitted a second view, to 
look again on that splendid picture. The mill dam and its 
tossing floods, the apple orchard, as last 1 saw it, a veritable 
sheet of bloom; the mansion house on the hill, its many negro 
dwellings still standing, and the old-time tobacco and hemp 
houses all telling of the old-time slave days of Kentucky. 

As the train mounts high on the bridge and seems to float 
in air above the mill dam waterfall seen tumbling far 
beneath its wheels as they pass beside the leafy tops of some 
rows of sycamore trees, rising from the banks of an ancient 
water mill race, cut through ledges of stone down by the 
water’s side, little the traveler imagines as he is spirited 
safely on, the tragedy once enacted in a water mill, that for 
many years in the early history of the country, stood exactly 
on the site now occupied by the railroad bridge’s north 
abutment. 

Perhaps, if the train boy is not too busy driving a bargain 
for a morning paper with passengers just on the train at Ce- 
dar Bridge Station, for even the negro passenger can now read. 


FINIS 


425 


as he pauses to listen to the brakeman’s cry: ^The next stop 
is Stanford, Stanford Station is the next stop,'' will tap 
a foot on the car floor as he stands with arms full of 
Louisville newspapers, and will say, as the train crosses the 
bridge's pier: ‘‘Away down under this pile of masonry, after 
the contractor had coffered the creek and pumped the water 
all out, and had begun to blast the rock away to lay a foun- 
dation, the workmen found, wedged into a crevice in the 
creek's rock bottomed bed, hammered in the narrow place so 
the men had great difficulty getting them out, all the bones of 
a man. Down among the remains still grasped tight in the 
clean white bones of a hand, was what was once the metal of a 
Colt's cavalry revolver, full brass mounted, such as was used 
by the American army in the Mexican war. The skull was 
all shot away above the left ear. The ball was plainly 
tracable through the mouth and out at the left side of the 
head. It had been a five chamber pistol and all the bullets 
were there in the old chamber allright, excepting two. On 
what had been brass mountings was cut as with a soldier's 
jack knife, the letter “C" and “Second Kentucky Cavalry, 
Palo Alto, 1846." 

Anybody loafing about Cedar Bridge Station when the 
train stops, and he is always there, will tell you if asked, that 
the finding of that bunch of bones, grasping the remains of a 
cavalry revolver with two shots gone, accounts for two shots 
once heard by a black man the night of an infair party at the 
big house over there, and for a murder committed in an old 
water mill, that once stood where the north pier of this rail- 
road bridge now stands. 


AUTHOR’S NOTE. 


In thanking the reader for the patient attention given the 
story of “Tha Ole Watah Mill” and that of “Melissy and tha 
Chillens” as related by Josiah Marshall to our party of rail- 
road surveyors and builders, the writer wishes to say in con- 
clusion: 

This book contains the true story of a family of negro 
slaves who were born in the state of Kentucky, lived for 
many years there and were sold, as herein related, to negro 
buyers for a southern market. A family separated at the 
convenience of the owner, only to be finally reunited by the 
Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln. 

In order that the story might be conveyed to the reader to 
some extent, at least, as related by Josiah Marshall, it has 
been necessary, the writer apologetically, will say to so spell 
words as to at least approximate his southern pronunciation. 


426 



































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